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BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES 

OF 

European Public Men. 

Edited by 
THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON. 



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By Thos. Wentworth Higginson. $1.50. 

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Vol. III.— FRENCH POLITICAL LEADERS. 

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Political Leaders 

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EDWARD KING. 



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1876. 



EDITOR'S PREFACE. 




HHE name of the author of this volume needs 
no introduction to those who read attentively the 
French correspondence addressed to American 
newspapers during the Franco-Prussian war and the period 
of the Commune. No letters of that description were so 
clear and satisfactory, on the whole, as those written by " E. 
K." to the Boston Journal ; and it was the reputation thus 
gained which led to his selection as author of this volume. 
Mr. King is now in Paris, where all these pages have been 
written ; and this fact has given him the means of securing 
great accuracy of statement, with the latest light that can 
be thrown, in that ever-changing country, upon the char- 
acter and career of each person described. The result 
may safely be claimed as a work of great interest and 
practical value, especially for Americans. I know of no 
existing book, in any language, which comes so near to 
comprising just the information needed among us in regard 
to the present political leaders of France. 

T. W. H. 
Newport, R. I., 
Feb. 1, 1876. 



INTRODUCTION. 




N this little volume the author has endeavored to give the 
outline history of some of the prominent men in France, 
^ bringing into limits, convenient to the general reader, 
the main facts of their lives, and offering glimpses of their charac- 
ters. He has not pretended to analyze critically either these men or 
their motives, but rather to furnish data which will enable one to 
form a definite idea of them. All the persons described in this book 
are contemporaries ; most of them are in the political field to-day. 
Some have been members of all the great parliamentary bodies as- 
sembled in France on different occasions since 1830 ; some are 
equally distinguished in literature and in politics ; all played impor- 
tant parts in the terrible drama enacted in France after the fall of 
the Empire. Among them will be found the principal represents^ 
lives of all the parties now struggling for power in that country. 

He would be a bold man indeed who should attempt at present to 
explain the relations of the various factions in France to each other, 
or even to give an absolutely correct notion of the composition of 
the two Legislative Chambers soon to be inaugurated at Versailles. 
The terms generally used in describing the divisions of the present 



viii INTRODUCTION. 

Assembly, and which will probably be retained many years, may be 
roughly described, however, in a few words. 

The " Right " of the Assembly comprises three divisions. The first 
is composed of the Legitimists, who adhere to the fallen fortunes of 
that elder branch of the Bourbon family, long since expelled from 
Fran ce, and now represented by the Comte de Chambord, who calls 
himself '' Henri the Fifth." The pure Legitimists believe in a king 
by right divine, and are stumbling blocks in the path of progress 
and reform. In the second division are the Orleanists, who believe in 
Constitutional Monarchy, and in a restoration of the younger branch 
of the Bourbon dynasty, whose rule finished with the abdication of 
Louis Philippe, and which is now represented by the Comte de Paris, 
and the Due d'Aumale. The third class is made up of Imperialists, 
who constitute a small party about thirty in number, sometimes 
characterized as the group of the " Appeal to the People." The 
more moderate of the Monarchists are grouped together in a sub- 
division known as the "Right Centre," and the " Extreme Right" 
is the retreat from which the '' pure Legitimists " only emerge wheii 
they fancy that they can inflict an injury on one of their enemies by 
co-operating with another. The "Left" is frankly republican in 
the highest sense. It is subdivided into the " Centre Left," made 
up, of moderate and conservative republicans, willing to sacrifice 
much in order that they may gain time to educate the people, and 
bring the peasant class vip to the level of its opportunities, and the 
"Extreme Left," which is radical, dissatisfied with the new constitu- 
tion, and distrustful of the moderates of its own party. These ele- 
ments will be conspicuous in the new Chambers, but between them 
there will not be the unyielding and unprofitable strife that constantly 
raged in the Assembly which came into power in 1871. The cleri- 
cal party, never more aggressive in France than now, and represented 



- INTRODUCTION. • ix 

by such giants as Archbishop Dupanloup, is included in the Right, 
and lends its mighty influence to the efforts made by that body to turn 
the tide of events. 

The upheaval which followed the fall of the Second Empire and 
the war, brought to the surface and into the political arena all the rep- 
resentatives of the old intolerant parties, — men who had been slum- 
bering during the period of corruption and inaction, and who came to 
the responsibilities suddenly bestowed upon them, much as owls come 
into the sunshine. That was a somber satirist who called the mem- 
bers of the Assembly of 1871, " the ghosts of 1848." The Frenchmen 
of the new regime, who had been gaining prominence and power in 
the declining days of the Empire ; who demanded emancipation 
from old and dead formulas ; and who recognized that the time had 
come for a final and sustained experiment in national freedom, were 
astonished to find themselves treated as radicals, as revolutionists, 
as dreamers, almost as madmen by the fossil politicians who had 
been handed down, a baleful legacy, to the new and progressive 
generation. They tried to reason, but reason was of no avail ; they 
found themselves confronted at every turn with an unbending bar- 
rier of prejudice, and by skillful politicians toiling to form alliances 
which should prevent the legal establishment of the Republic. 

" In this Assembly," says a recent French writer, " modern France 
found all her adversaries gradually gathering into a redoubtable 
coalition, excited by their unexpected success ; fancying that every- 
thing must give way before them, and impatient to crush democ- 
racy. All that composes our society, from its secular character 
even to the political equality guaranteed by universal suffrage, was 
harshly menaced ; one can hardly imagine the number of plots in 
preparation against all the liberties conquered by the nation since 
'89. The whole country demanded, in the anguish of suspense, 



X 



INTRODUCTION. 



when the final encounter between the ' Modern Spirit,' and the 
combination of all the disappointed monarchists would take place?" 

The varying passions, the violent prejudices, and the intense in- 
tolerance which sometimes seems almost a national characteristic, 
have made of the National Assembly since 187 1 the scene of fre- 
quent chaos. But this has not been without good effect, for it has 
given the Republicans a powerful advantage over their enemies of 
the Right. It prevented, it rendered absolutely impossible the mon- 
archical coalition which was at one time so greatly feared ; and by 
preventing this, it opened the door to the Republic. The French- 
man who said that the new Republic had been founded by its ad- 
versaries uttered a profound truth. 

After the resignation of M. Thiers, in May, 1873, Marshal Mac- 
Mahon, Due de Magenta, was elected president of the French Re- 
public by the Assembly. On the igth of November of the same 
year, the continuation of his powers for seven years was accorded 
by a majority of sixty-eight votes. This action bound the Marshal- 
President to the preservation of order, and to the virtual mainte- 
nance of a truce between all parties while the discussion, adoption, 
and preliminary operation of the constitutional laws were in prbg- 
ress. This seven years of armed neutrality is generally designated 
as the " Septennate," at the end of which time the revision of the 
Constitution will be demanded by many radicals and some mon- 
archists. But it is confidently expected by the friends of liberty 
that by 1880 the most of the French people will have plainly and 
unmistakably declared in favor of Republican government ; that the 
Imperialists will have become discouraged, and will no longer seek 
to go before the people, with their " plSiscife," asking them to 
choose directly between Empire and Republic, and that those 
classes who now fancy that they see in Republicanism a forerunner 



INTRODUCTION. XI 

of anarchy and destruction of " moral order " will be reassured, and, 
at least partially, willing to work at upbuilding the edifice of na- 
tional liberty. 

Tlie members of the Cabinet play a much more active public part 
in France than in the United States. As in England, the " pre- 
mier " sustains his own measures face to face with the legislators 
who are battling to prevent their adoption. From the " tribune," 
the species of pulpit in which every orator is requii'ed to stand when 
addressing the Assembly, the premier and his colleagues daily hurl 
defiance at their enemies. The personalities of the ministers thus 
become much more interesting tlian in America, where the secreta- 
ries' voices are never heard in Congress. In Fiance it is the Govern- 
ment which takes the initiative, and the ministers who introduce 
and defend the projects which, of course, meet with no favor from 
the opposition. All important bills and amendments are identified 
with persons, are even named after those who present them. Each 
ministry receives a. sobnqi{ethGC3.\ise of some salient point in its policy. 

It is believed that in a few weeks the " National Assembly " will 
have ceased to exist. But many of the '' Political Leaders " who 
have been so conspicuous in its stormiest sessions for nearly five 
years will, doubtless, re-appear in the new chambers, where they 
will engage in fresh battles over the questions constaiitly arising be- 
fore the French in their march toward freedom and self-govern- 
ment. 

One of the recent acts of the Assembly illustrates with much force 
the manner in which the internal dissensions of the monarchical 
party are of direct profit to the cause of the Republic. The As- 
sembly was compelled, by a provision of the new Constitution, to 
choose seventy-five " senators for life," to occupy Seats in the Senate. 
In the struggle which ensued, the Legitimists and Bonapartists 



xii INTRODUCTION. 

voted with the Republicans in order that they might succeed in 
completely crushing the Orleanists, who were decidedly over- 
whelmed. So long as the enemies of the Republic are thus divided 
against themselves, there is hope for liberty in France. 

Paris, December, 1875. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Victor Marie Hugo g 

Louis Adolphe Thiers 55 

Leon Gambetta 75 

Jules Simon 98 

Marshal MacMahon (Due de Magenta) 114 

monseigneur dupanloup . .- 122 

Jules Grevy .' 140 

Edouard Laboulaye f47 

Eugene Rouher 160 

Edgar Raoul Duvai 172 

The Due de Broglie 180 

Louis Joseph Buffet 190 

The Due d'Audiffret-Pasquier 195 

Jules Armand Stanislas Dufaure 202 

Emile Ollivier 210 

Jules Favre 224 

The Comte de Chambord 239 

The Due d'Aumale 248 

The Comte de Paris 261 

Ernest Picard 273 

Henri Rochefort 279 

Casimir P£rier 308 

Jules Ferry 316 



Victor Marie Hugo 



^^|T the beginning of this century," writes Victor 
i^^Sf Hugo, in the preface to the first volume of his 
"Deeds and Words" — a work which forms a 
substantial history of his career, — "in the most desolate 
quarter of Paris, a child lived in a great mansion, which 
a huge garden surrounded and isolated. That mansion 
was called, before the Revolution, the Convent des 
Feuillantines. The child lived there with his mother, his 
two brothers, and a Venerable priest, an old Oratorian, 
still trembling at the recollections of '93, — an old man, 
long since persecuted, but indulgent then, who was their 
clement preceptor, who taught them much Latin, a little 
Greek, and no history at all. At one end of the garden 
there were some very large trees, which concealed an old, 
half-ruined chapel. To-day those trees, the chapel, and 
the mansion have disappeared. The improvements which 
have so rigorously intrenched on the garden of the Lux- 
embourg have extended even to the Val de Grace, and 
have destroyed that humble oasis. A wide street, which 



lO BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

serves no purpose, passes over the site. Nothing now 
remains of the Feuillantines but a little gras? and a frag- 
ment of decrepit wall, seen between two tall, new blocks. 
... It was in this house that the three brothers grew up 
under the first Empire." 

' ' For the youngest of those three brothers the old man- 
sion of the Feuillantines is to-day a cherished and re- 
ligious souvenir. It appears to him, in his musings, 
covered with a kind of savage shade. It is there that, 
amid sunbeams and roses, the mysterious unfolding of 
his spirit took place within him. Nothing could have 
been more tranquil than that high, florid ruin, long ago a 
convent, then a solitude, always an asylum. Nevertheless, 
the Imperial tumult now and then resounded there. 
From time to time, in those vast abbey chambers, in those 
crumbling monastic halls, beneath the vaults of the dis- 
mantled cloister, the child saw come and go between two 
wars, whose echoes he heard, — coming from the army, 
and going back to the army — a young general, who was 
his father, and a young colonel, who was his uncle. This 
charming paternal invasion dazzled him for a moment ; 
then, at the sound of a trumpet, 'those visior^ of plumes 
and sabers vanished, and everything became peaceful and 
silent in that ruin where there was a dawn." 

Victor Hugo w^as born in Besancon, on the 26th of 
February, 1803. His family was noble, and had been so 
since 1531. It was one of the most sterling and re- 
nowned families of Lorraine. There were many valiant 
soldiers among the ancestors of the first of modern French 
poets. Hugo's father was a volunteer soldier under the 
Republic ; and, after the advent of the Empire, became, 



VICTOR MARIE HUGO. II 

at once, a general and a governor of some of the most im- 
portant provinces in Spain. His mother was a lady of 
rare character and refinement. She shared, when she 
could, the adventurous existence of her soldier-husband, 
and generally took her children with her. It is even said 
that she had herself been personally engaged in the terrible 
struggle in the Vendee, under the Republic. In Hugo's 
earlier poems, many allusions to his romantic youth are 
to be found. As a child, he followed ihe imperial armies 
with his mother, and when hardly old enough to speak 
plainly, was taken to Italy, and thence to his father, who, 
at that time Governor of the province of Avellino, in 
Calabria, was campaigning against the celebrated bandit,. 
" Fra Diavolo." Hugo had been on the banks of the 
Arno, the Tiber, and Naples Bay, before he was seven years 
of age. 

One evening, when young Hugo was playing in the 
garden of the convent of the Feuillantines, whose shadows 
were from time to time lit up by the reflection of the 
colossal fireworks with which Paris was celebrating some 
new imperial victory, he saw come out from the ruined 
chapel a man whom he liad never seen before. This man 
was a proscribed gentleman, who had been concealed by 
Hugo's father, after a price had been set upon his head. 
Victor Hugo thus describes him : 

"Victor Fanneau de Lahorie was a Breton gentleman 
who had given his faith to the Republic. He was the friend 
of Moreau, also a Breton. Lahorie had, in the Vendee, 
known my father, who was younger than he by a quarter 
of a century. Later, he was his companion in the army 
of the Rhine. There sprang up between them one of 



12 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

those soldier fraternities ^vhich enable one man to give 
his life for another. In iSoi Lahorie was implicated in 
the conspiracy of Moreau against Bonaparte. He was 
proscribed ; a price was set upon his head ; he had no 
asylum ; my father opened his house to him. The old 
chapel of the Feuillantines, a ruin, served to protect that 
other ruin, a conquered man. Lahorie accepted the 
asylum as it had been offered to him, simply, and he lived 
concealed in the shade." 

On the occasion when young Victor saw him first, the 
proscribed man had the imprudence to come out from his 
hiding-place, to speak to three generals, comrades of 
Hugo's father, who had come to bring the wife news of 
the absent husband. These generals were friendly to 
Lahorie and did not betray him. During the conversation 
the proscribed said to the child : " Remember, — liberty 
above all." Hugo learned later that this unfortunate gen- 
tleman was his godfather. Lahorie had said to the father, 
" Hugo is a northern name, you must soften it by joining 
it to a southern word, and complete the German by the 
Roman." So the friends decided to call the child Victor, 
after Lahorie. 

Young Victor saw much of the proscribed man after he 
had once found out his refuge. Behind the altar in the 
old chapel there was a camp-bedstead, over which hung 
some pistols ; and in that nook, into which the rain would 
now and then patter, Victor Lahorie and Victor Hugo 
read Tacitus together ; while the old priest, who had no 
thought of betraying Lahorie's hiding-place, looked approv- 
ingly on. One day Lahorie disappeared, and young Vic- 
tor's mother would not tell him where the outlaw had gone. 



VICTOR MARIE HUGO. ■ 13 

Three years later, as Victor was walking with his mother 
one evening, he saw a placard posted on a column at a 
church portal. It ran as follows : 

'•■ E}npire Francais — By and according to sentence of the 
First Court Martial, were shot yesterday, in the plain of Cre- 
nelle, for the crime of conspiracy against the Empire and the 
Emperor, the three ex-generals, IMalet, Guidal, and Lahorie." 

" Lahorie ! '' 'said Victor's mother. " Remember that 
name.. He was thy godfather. " 

Hugo was, in his early youth, constantly surrounded by 
people who made the Republic a by-word and a re- 
proach. His father, fighting desperately for Joseph Bona- 
parte's tottering throne against the never-yielding Spaniards, 
had little time to watch over his development. Madame 
Hugo finally went to Madrid to live at the Court of Jo- 
seph. With her young children she had a long and dan- 
gerous journey through the Spanish mountains. Victor 
was, although of tender years, wonderfully impressed with 
Spain, with Spanish architecture, and the people ; this is 
very perceptible in both his earlier and later poems. He 
was at school for a time in the somber and disagreeable 
"seminary of the nobles," where he was half starved, and 
consoled himself by wiiting verses, although he was but 
ten 3^ears old. In 181 2, events in Europe compelled the 
departure of the majority of the French from Spain. Hugo 
returned with his mother and his brothers to the Convent 
of the Feuillantines. After another period of dreamy and 
poetic existence there, he was sent, with his brother Eu- 
gene, to a school where they were to prepare for the Poly- 
technic, as their father intended to make soldiers of them. 
The father frowned on Victor's poetical aspirations, and 



14 . BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

urged him to plunge into the study of the higher mathe- 
matics. 

Victor acquiesced ruefully in the parental judgment. 
He studied mathematics, but he also wrote verses. At 
fourteen he had already written a tragedy, called " Ir- 
tamene," and two lyrics, which had in them the true ring 
of genius — "Rich and Poor," and "The Canadian Gii'l." 
In 1817 he wrote so well on the subject assigned for com- 
petition by the Academy (" The Advantages of Study ") that 
he received an honorable mention, and would have had the 
prize, had not the Academicians refused to believe that he 
vv'as but fifteen years of age. A few years later, from 1819 
to 1822, he obtained, three times in succession, the chief 
prize from the Toulouse Academy of Floral Sports, for 
three poems entitled "'The Virgins of Verdun," "The 
Re-establishment of Henry Fourth's Statue," and " Moses 
on the Nile." These three odes, really among the best 
which he has ever written, made him temporarily quite 
famous. He had already published many poems, and a 
romance called " Bug-Jargal," which he contributed to a 
review named "The Literary Conservative," founded by 
one of his brothers. In these youthful days he was like 
his mother — ultra-royalist. Chateaubriand became much 
attached to the astonishing youth, whose precocity bore 
such savory fruit, complimented him highly, and endeav- 
ored to make him a place in the Berlin embassy, to \yhich 
he himself had been appointed. But Victor declined, hav- 
ing little taste for diplomacy. 

In the mid-summer of 1821 his mother died. It was a 
great sorrow for Victor, who was for many weeks almost 
inconsolable. 



VICTOR MARIE HUGO. 1 5 

Although the young Hugos were by no means unsuc- 
cessful in literature, their father, the General, informed 
them that he could not bestow an allowance upon them 
unless they would consent to take "regular" professions. 
Victor refused to desert letters, and found himself thrown 
on his own resources, with a capital of only eight hundred 
francs, which he had earned for himself He had long 
sincerely loved a charming and accomplished young girl. 
Mademoiselle Foucher, the daughter of worthy parents, 
who felt that they could smile upon the match if they could 
heir their prospective son-in-law declare that his expecta- 
tions were good. The appearance of his first volume of 
poesy, " Odes and Ballads," and the manner in which his 
name was mentioned, did much to weaken the objec- 
tions of the parents, and they at last decided to give their 
daughter to the writer whom Chateaubriand had called 
"sublime." Hugo was, besides, at this time much in 
favor with the government. Louis XVHI. was anxious to 
bestow honors upon him. Although Hugo was well known 
as a royalist, he had written a letter to an enemy of royalty, 
offering him an asylum in his house, and this trait of 
character was said so to have delighted Louis, that he said, 
when the letter was brought to him : 

' ' The writer is a noble young man ; I will give him the 
"first vacant pension. " 

Victor began "Hans of Iceland," an impassioned and 
impossible romance, in the dark days when he was strug- 
gling to make a livelihood, and was lamenting the cruel 
circumstances which separated him from his love. He was 
gloomy, discouraged, and angry ; he found a rude pleasure 
in portraying the savage grandeur of the icy North and the 



l6 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

horrible ferocity of tlie legendary giant in " Hans of Ice- 
land. " He even went to the Church for consolation in his 
trouble ; and hastened to seek Lamennais, then in the full 
flush of his fame. He found the priest installed at the 
Convent of the Feuillantines, the old Hugo home. The 
flood of painful souvenirs which rushed upon him as he 
entered the walls of the old cloister made him still more 
forlorn. Lamennais found, however, that Hugo had little 
to confess ; and so, after a brief conversation, sent him away 
comforted. 

After his marriage Victor maintained an artificial gloom 
until he had completed ' ' Hans of Iceland, " which he sold to 
a publisher for a thousand francs. At the same time a 
second edition of the "Odes and Ballads" increased 
his slender income. As he had already begun, in " Hans 
of Iceland," to neglect the classical, and to prefer the 
romantic style, his romance was severely handled by the 
critics. Hugo's mind and style were undergoing a vast 
chclnge at the same time. He was becoming liberal, and 
was preparing for these audacious efforts w'hich resulted, 
after so many severe battles, in the complete success of the 
new school, whose virtual chief he was and is. He clung 
to his royalist opinions in his verses, however ; and was 
so firm in the manner of sustaining his views that the cele- 
brated Armand Carrel once determined to challenge him, 
but was prevented by friends. In 1826, V^ictor Hugo pub- 
lished the second series of " Odes and Ballads," and in 
these poems were found incontestable proofs that he had 
become, as his enemies of the time phrased it, "infected 
with powerful liberalism." He had been very much annoyed 
on learning that his pension, accorded by the king, was 



VICTOR MARIE HUGO. 1/ 

due entirely to a trick which he considered unworthy of the 
representatives of power. When he discovered that the 
letter which he had written to offer the conspirator shelter, 
had been opened, read, and carried to Louis XVIII. by 
spies, his indignation knew no bounds, and he was almost 
resolved to refuse the sum which the king had given as a 
token of his adiniration of the young poet's generous sen- 
timents. The Cenacle, or club, which he gradually formed 
around him, was semi-revolutionary in character, and was 
enlivened by such brilliant spirits as Sainte-Beuve, Des- 
champs, and Boulanger, In his lyric poems, Hugo, day 
by day, showed increasing contempt for the classical school; 
and the daring splendors of his antithesis, and his contin- 
ual combinations of the grotesque and the sublime, dazzled 
and pained the old-fashioned critics, who did not hesitate 
to proclaim him an upstart. 

When Hugo saw the assassin of the Due de Berri taken 
to the scaffold in 1820, his blood ran cold in his veins, and 
his whole spirit revolted against the horror and the unfor- 
giving severity of capital punishment. He was, in those 
days, still ultra-royalist at heart, and found the assassin's 
work hideous and inexcusable in every sense ; but he 
could not believe in "a life for a life. " Some years after- 
ward he was walking in the square in front of the Hotel de 
Ville one evening, when he saw the executioner practicing 
with the guillotine for an execution to take place on the 
morrow. The crowd surrounded the brutal officer, who, 
while he greased the grooves in which the fatal knife was 
to fall, recounted the terrors of the unhappy prisoner and 
the details of his crime ; young Hugo, sick at heart, went 
home shuddering. The next day he began to write " The 



l8 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

Last Day of a Condemned Prisoner " (Le Dernier Jour d'un 
Condam?:e), and finished it in three weeks. It was pubhshed 
early in 1829, and created a profound sensation. As a 
psychological study it is exceedingly powerful ; so strong, 
indeed, that thousands refused to believe, on reading it for 
the first time, that it was the work of one who had never 
been under sentence of death. The horrors, the despairs, 
the paralysis, the fantastical dreams and rude awakenings 
of the convict were depicted with a force, yet delicacy, which 
captivated even those who saw in the book an odious at- 
tempt to derogate from the majesty of the law. There was 
never a more eloquent protest against capital punish- 
ment. 

Victor Hugo has all his life been true to his early be- 
liefs on this subject. In 1832, he added to "the Last Day 
of a Condemned Prisoner " a preface, in which he elo- 
quently advanced powerful reasons for clemency in all 
capital cases. In 1854 he published'"' Claude Gueux," an- 
other appeal for mercy to criminals in general, although 
too late to serve in the case of the real Claude, who had 
been executed two years previously for a crime, to com- 
mit which he had been incited by hunger. Hugo was 
one of those who petitioned for this criminal's pardon, and 
who cared tenderly for him while he was in prison. 

In May of 1839, the insurrection in which Blanqui 
and Barbes were prominent figures was promptly sup- 
pressed. On the evening after its suppression, Hugo 
was at the opera, when an act of the "Esmeralda," 
taken from his ' ' Notre Dame " was performed. A peer of 
France sat down beside the poet, whom he recognized, 
saying : 



VICTOR MARIE HUGO. I9 

" We have just completed a very sad task ; we have 
condemned a man to death." 

" Is Barbes condemned.'' " said Hugo. 

"Yes, and he will be executed, because the ministers 
insist upon it." 

"When.?" 

"To-morrow, probably ; you know that there is no ap- 
peal from the decision of the Chamber of Peers." 

Hugo left the peer, went into one of the private offices 
at the opera, called for pen, ink, and paper, and wrote the 
following verse : 

" Par votre ange envolee ainsi qu'une colombe ! 
Par ce royal enfant, doux et frele roseau ! 
Grace encore une fois ! grace au nom de la tombe ! 
Grace au nom. du berceau."* 

He placed the paper in a common envelope, sealed it, 
wrote his name on it, addressed it, and carried it himself 
to the Tuileries. The porter said that the King would 
not get the letter until the next day. But when Hugo ex- 
plained that a man's life depended on the instant delivery 
of the missive, the porter carried it to the aide-de-camp. 
In twenty minutes he returned. 

"The King has read your letter," he said, "and that 
shows that you were wise to write- your name on the en- 
velope. It seems that M. d'Houdetot, who is the aide-de- 

* In this little verse, in which Hugo so touchingly asked for the 
pardon of Barbes in the name of the tomb and the cradle, the poet 
alluded to the death of Marie d'Orleans, one of Louis Philippe's 
children — which occurred in 1839, — and to the recent birth of the 
Comte de Paris,* 



20 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

camp on duty, knows you ; he was just about to throw 
your letter on the table, when he saw your name. Then 
he carried your letter in at once, and the usher saw the 
King reading it, for he looked through the glass door." 

Next morning the generous Victor learned that Barbes 
still lived. Louis Philippe had been deeply touched by 
the poetic appeal, and had resisted his ministers. He sent 
to Hugo the following answer : " His pardon is granted, 
it only remains forme to obtain it," — which was a delicate 
allusion to the difficulty he experienced in contradicting 
the wishes of the ministiy. In 1862 Barbes wrote to thank 
Hugo for his timely intercession. 

In 1848 Victor Hugo made an eloquent address in 
the Constituent Assembly against capital punishment, vot- 
ing for its abolition. In 1849 ^^ asked for the pardon 
of one of the persons inculpated in the Brea affair, but it 
was not granted. In 1851 his eldest son was brought 
up for trial at the Paris Assizes, charged with having pro- 
tested, in anarticle in the Evenement, a city journal, against 
the horrible details of a certain execution. Hugo asked, 
and received permission himself to conduct his son's 
case. He did so, making one of the most eloquent and 
thrilling speeches against " the penalty of death " ever ut- 
tered in a civilized country. "As for this law of blood 
for blood, gentlemen of the jury," he cried — "I have 
fought it all my life. All my life — and so long as there 
remains a particle of breath in my body — I will fight 
against it with all my power as writer, with all my deeds 
and all my votes as a legislator. I declare it " — here he 
extended his arm and pointed to the Christ on the crucifix 
above the Judge's Bench — " I declare it before that victim 



VICTOR MARIE HUGO. 21 

of the punishment of death who is there — who sees us, 
and who hears us ! I swear it before that gibbet, to 
which nearly two thousand years ago, for an eternal les- 
son to the generations, human law nailed divine law ! " 

Despite the eloquence of the father, the son was sen- 
tenced to six months' imprisonment. 

In 1854, when Victor Hugo was in exile in Guernsey, 
he eloquently interfered several times in behalf of unfor- 
tunate culprits about to be hanged; and, on one occasion, 
wrote a letter to Lord Palmerston, in favor of the abolition 
of all "legal murder "^-which echoed throughout Europe. 
In 1859 he raised his voice in indignant protest against the 
execution of John Brown, asserting that" all notions of 
justice and injustice would be confounded on the day when 
the world should see deliverance assassinated by liberty." 
A year or two later, a Belgian jury's decisions having brought 
nine sentences of death before the public attention, some 
.one published a poem filled with passionate invective, to 
which he affixed the name of Victor Hugo. The poet at 
once wTote to repudiate the forgery, but, at the same time, 
he added, "When it is an affair of saving heads, lam 
Avilling that my name should be used and even abused." 
And he united his cries for pardon with those of the un- 
known person who had forged his signature. He appealed 
to the Belgians to "push back finally into the night that 
monstrous punishment by death, whose principal glory is 
that it raised on earth two gibbets, that of Jesus Christ in 
the old world, and that of John Brown in. the new." In 
1862, the poet's efforts to exclude a law allowing capital 
punishment from the new constitution of Geneva were of 
great avail in directing the public attention toward the 



22 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

important question of mercy, and in securing great reforms 
in criminal legislation. All his life long the great and 
good man has fought for humanity, and one of the kindly 
deeds of his old age is the appeal for clemency which he 
recently made with success in the case of an unfortunate 
French soldier condemned to death for a grave military 
offense. His heart bled when the terrible massacres of 
the insurrectionists of 1871 occurred, and he has a hun- 
dred times dema.nded pardon for the exiled, the crushed, 
and forlorn who have been sent to the shades of Noumea 
and the gloomy horrors of a penal colony. 

One day, when M. Taylor was the' royal commissioner 
at the Comedie Francaise, he asked Hugo why he did not 
write for the theater. 

"1 am thinking of it," answered the poet. "I have 
just begun a drama with Cromwell for its subject." 

"Well, finish it and give it to me. Cromwell, written 
by you, can be played by Talma only." 

A short time thereafter, the courteous Taylor brought 
Talma and Hugo together at a dinner party. Talma was 
then sixty-five years old, he was worn out with fatigue ; in- 
deed, he died a few months afterward. But he was en- 
thusiastic over Hugo's project, said that he had always 
desired to appear as Cromwell ; and applauded the scenes 
which the young author repeated to him. 

" Use all possible speed in writing your play ; I am im- 
patient to see it," said Talma. Hugo obeyed, but relin- 
quished his project when he heard of Talma's death. After 
a long delay, he resumed the work, and, in December of 
1827, a huge volume containing the piece, and a preface 
of massive proportions, made its appearance. Both play 



VICTOR MARIE HUGO. 23 

and preface created a profound sensation. The latter, into 
which the author had worked his ideas on the relative 
values of the classical and romantic schools, was a verita- 
ble declaration of war, and provoked great numbers of 
hostile criticisms. The journalists laughed the youthful 
iconoclast to scorn ; advised him not to talk about Shake- 
speare until he had learned to spell the name ; and en- 
deavored to give him such a crushing defeat that he would 
at once retreat from the field. No attempt was made to 
place the drama on the stage. 

Hugo's next experience of the critics occurred while he 
was still overwhelmed with grief at the sudden death of his 
father, who succumbed in the winter of 1828 to a stroke of 
apoplexy. The poet had, some years before, written, in 
conjunction with another poor and struggling literary man, 
a piece called " Amy Robsart, " the story of which was of 
course taken from " Kenihvorth." When Hugo became 
famous, his brother-in-law urged him to publish or to pro- 
duce at the theater this play of " Amy Robsart ; " but Hugo 
refused, saying, that he did not consider it as his work, so 
great had been the change in his methods since the time 
that it was written. He gave the piece, however, to his 
brother-in-law, because of very earnest solicitation, and 
was not a little surprised when he learned that it was to be 
played at the Odeon, and that the name of the author was 
not announced. His brother-in-law had fancied that he 
was doing him a kindness ; but the piece was violently 
hissed. Hugo, with characteristic frankness, wrote to the 
press that the passages objected to by the audiences were 
nearly all from his pen. This at once gave the piece a 
fresh interest ; the partisans of the new school rallied to 



24 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

the support of ''Amy Robsart." But the hisses were re- 
doubled, and the agitation became so great, that the 
government suppressed the play. 

This was but the beginning of the disturbances destined 
to mark the poet's dramatic career, and to crown his 
triumphs. After the publication of the volume of poems 
called " Les Orientales," which, although by no means one 
of the best proofs of Hugo's genius, gained a popular verdict 
of favor such as few poems ever receive — and after the event- 
ful issue of " The Last Day of the Condemned," elsewhere 
recounted — Hugo devoted himself earnestly to the creation 
of a great dramatic work. A hundred subjects suggested 
themselves to his fertile brain ; but he finally hesitated only 
between the stories of " Marion Delorme," — which was at 
first called "A Duel under Richelieu," and " Hernani." He 
at last decided in favor of " Marion Delorme; " and began to 
work upon it, in a kind of frenzy, on the ist of June, 1829. 
On the 20th of the same month, the fourth act of the piece 
was begun just at dawn. The poet, haggard, weary, and 
overwhelmed by the torrent of thought pouring through his 
brain, worked furiously, banishing himself from his family 
and his friends ; and in four days more, the play was 
finished. His friends begged him to read it in public. 
The idea of such an exhibition of what so many people 
were pleased to term his eccentricities, was repugnant to 
him ; but he finally consented, and one July evening, he 
read the drama before a numerous invited audience. Bal- 
zac, De Musset, Delacroix, Dumas, De Vigny, Sainte- 
Beuve, Merimee, Soulie, Taylor, and many other celebri- 
ties were present. Every one agreed that the play would 
be sure to receive the plaudits of the public. 



VICTOR MARIE HUGO. 2$ 

The next day, M. Hugo, the tabooed romanticist, was 
besieged by directors of tlie Paris theaters. M. Taylor of 
the Comedie Francaise was among the first. Hugo agreed 
to give him his piece, and the great Mars was to appear in 
the role of Marion. The anger and chagrin of the other 
directors, when they found that the clever Taylor had fore- 
stalled them, can be better imagined than described. One 
enthusiastic manager entered Hugo's humble home, and 
wrote upon his play the following receipt : "Received at 
the Odeon Theater, July 14, 1829." 

Hugo was obliged to feign serious anger before he could 
compel the enterprising manager to relinquish his prey. 
When the time came for the reading of " Marion De- 
lorme " before the company of the Comedie Francaise, 
the author learned that the actors did not intend, as usual, 
to vote upon the reception of the play. "Hugo does not 
present us his piece," said. the manager ; " on the contraiy, 
we have asked him for it." 

The subject and the treatment of the drama naturally 
procured its interdiction at the hands of the censors of 
that time. Hugo had painted Louis XHI. as a ridiculous 
nonentity governed by a priest ; and the censors therefore 
supposed that he had intended to strike at Charles X., then 
king of France. M. Hugo appealed from the censors 
to the ministry ; and finally demanded an audience 'of the 
king himself Charles received him graciously enough 
at Saint-Cloud. 

"I hear that you have maltreated my poor ancestor 
Louis XIIL," said the king. " M. de Martignac, the 
minister, tells me that there is a terrible act in your 
play." 



26 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

Upon this, Hugo boldly produced the fourth act of 
" Marion Delorme," and invited his majesty to read it at 
his leisure. The king was delighted. He took the act, 
and read it. Some days afterwards, Hugo received notice 
that the representation could not be authorized. A little 
later, as he was one day conversing with Sainte-Beuve, a 
messenger brought him a letter announcing that the king 
granted him a new pension of four thousand francs. Hugo 
at once wrote an answer, declining the pension, and showed 
it to Sainte-Beuve, who approved his resolution. The 
journals highly applauded this worthy conduct, whose 
praises Sainte-Beuve did not fail to sing abroad. 

In October of the same year, Hugo read ' ' Hernani " be- 
fore the actors of the Comedie Frangaise. The piece was 
at once received, and Mars was in the cast. This great 
actress, then past her fiftieth year, was hostile to the new dra- 
matic movement, and the romantic school. She had sim- 
ply accepted a role in Hugo's piece, so that no other 
actress should be able to make a sensation in it. As soon 
as the rehearsals began. Mars plainly showed her hostility; 
she endeavored to frighten Hugo into toning and changing 
his phrases to suit her ideas ; but finding him firm as a 
rock, she became impertinent. The author lost his tem- 
per. 

"Madame," he said, " I will trouble you to give up your 
role." 

Mars turned pale. It was the first time in her life that a 
part once assigned had been taken away from her. She 
made a gigantic effort, swallowed her pride, and apolo- 
gized. 

The curiosity and excitement caused by the news that 



.VICTOR MARIE HUGO. 2/ 

" Hernani " was in rehearsal were very great. Authors, 
actors, and journalists made astonishing efforts to discover 
the plot. The minor theaters employed agents to find out 
the leading secrets of some of the acts, and parodied them. 
Meantmie, the piece remained in the office of the censors, 
undergoing microscopic examination. But Hugo had 
been taught by experience; little was found in " Her- 
nani " to which they were inclined to object. Benjamin 
Constant, Merimee, Thiers, and a host of other celebrities 
begged the author for tickets for the first representation, 
as they had not succeeded in getting them at the theater. 

As it was expected that there would be a great battle 
over the production of " Hernani," elaborate preparations 
for defense were made. The author was asked how many 
professional claqueurs, or paid applauders, he would have. 
" I will have none," he answered. But he rallied to his 
support all the youth from the schools of music, painting, 
sculpture, and architecture ; all the wi iters who swore by 
the romantic school ; all the broad-hatted and flashily 
dressed sons of Bohemia, who were the terror of the classi- 
cists; and he distributed among them tickets which assured 
him of friends in every portion of the theater on the terri- 
ble "first night." Four hours before the ordinary time for 
opening the door of the theater, the passers-by were aston- 
ished at the spectacle of an immense crowd of young men, 
clad in every fashion except the prevailing one, singing 
student songs, discussing philosophical questions, and in- 
dulging in passionate hamngues on their pet theories. At 
a given signal, these young men were admitted to the the- 
ater before the hour for the arrival of the regular public, 
and took the places assigned them. Inside, they organized 



28 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

a kind of picnic, as they would otherwise have been com- 
pelled to go hungry ; and in the evening, when the haugh- 
ty and refined patrons of the Comedie Fran^aise arrived, 
they found bits of sausage in the seats, a trifling perfume of 
garlic lingering in the corridors, and the odor of tobacco 
everywhere. While the house was filling up, the manager 
came to Victor Hugo. 

" Your play is dead, " he said, "and it is your friends 
who have killed it." 

Mars was furious at the advent of the Bohemians. She 
heaped impertinences upon the author. But, on this oc- 
casion, Hugo kept his temper. He looked into the audi- 
torium, and saw there two dark masses standing out in 
bold relief against the splendor of the toilettes, the jewels, 
and the flowers of the "classical" audience. He smiled 
confidently. The dark masses were his bands of Bohe- 
mian friends. He knew that they would fight his battle. 

The success of the piece on this first evening was grati- 
fying. At the end of the fourth act every one applauded. 
Between the fourth and fifth acts Hugo concluded a bar- 
gain with a publisher, who was anxious to bring out 
" Hernani " at once. "I offer you six thousand francs 
for the manuscript now," said the publisher, "because I 
fear that if I wait until after the fifth I shall offer ten 
thousand." ' 

They went out and signed the contract in a cigar store. 
Hugo received the six thousand francs then and there.. 
It was time that he should secure something, for in the 
family treasury there were but fifty francs left. 

The fifth act succeeded so well that even Mars was 
pleased, and offered her frosty cheek to Hugo in token of 



-VICTOR MARIE HUGO. 29 

amity. Every one went home dazzled and satisfied. The 
representation occurred on Saturday evening. On Mon- 
day the criticisms appeared. Nearly all were hostile ; and 
Hugo and his band of literary and artistic banditti were 
held up to reprobation. The classicists rallied ; the cock-' 
neys, always fond of a quarrel, poured into the theater at 
the second performance of " Hernani," and the actors were 
constantly interrupted by the sneers and laughter of one 
clique, and the cheers and hurrahs of the other. The 
third evening was stormier than the second, but "Her-' 
nani" was kept upon the stage for forty-five nights, at the 
end of which time Mademoiselle Mars had other engage-, 
ments. The excitement and the partisanship were so in- 
tense, at times, that riots were feared. People wrote threat- 
ening letters to Hugo, promising to do him injury if he did 
not withdraw the piece. Duels were fought over the merits 
of the verses. The author was vilified in the journals of 
his enemies, and was given- the most exalted praises in 
those of his friends. 

Several years after these events, two gentlemen were 
one evening witnessing the performance of "Hernani" 
at the Comedie Frangaise, when reference was made by one' 
of them to the strife caused by its original representa- 
tion. 

" Oh, Hugo has changed all the lines since then," said 
the other. 

" You are mistaken," was the answer. "It is not the 
play that has changed : it is the public." 

"Hernani" was revived during the last days of the 
Second Empire, and was the cause of so many tumults 
that the imperialists deemed it wise to suppress it. Napo- 



30 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

leon III. did not like to hear that the public had fran- 
tically applauded such lines as these : 

" N'e te rappelles ht pas, ftitiir Ccesar Romaiit, 
Que je t'ai Id cheiif et petit, dans ma main; 
Et que si je serrais cette main trap loyale, 
J'e'craierais dans Tociif ton aigle Imperiale ? " 

After the July Revolution there was no longer any ob- 
jection to the production of "Marion Delorme. " It was 
successful at the Porte St. Martin theater, where Madame 
Dorval was great in the character of Marion. 

Hugo wrote that terribly pathetic drama " Le Roi 
s'amuse " during the insurrection. The first act was 
written in four days. As he lived near the Tuileries gar- 
den, he was accustomed to walk there under the trees, and 
to compose his verses as he walked. One day, when 
hard at work on a monologue, he was interrupted by a 
riot, whose angry waves penetrated almost to his peaceful 
retreat, and compelled him to take refuge in a neighboring 
arcade. The tide of battle followed him ; and the poet, 
forgetting his verses, had to get behind some columns to 
protect himself from musket balls. 

After "Le Roi s'amuse," M. Hugo wrote " Lucrece 
Borgia," which he at first called "A Supper at Ferrara." 
The first play was given to the Comedie Francaise, where it 
renewed the scenes which greeted the advent of " Hernani." 
The ministry watched the effect of the piece carefully, as in 
the portrait which the author had drawn of Francis I. 
they fancied that they saw correct allusions to Louis 
Philippe. The drama was not greeted with acclamations. 
The morning after its first performance the author was 



yiCTOR MARIE HUGO. 3 1 

informed that the ministry had ordered its suspension on 
the pretext of immorality. On the same day the ministers 
held a council, and decided to suppress the play alto- 
gether. 

Hugo brought the matter before the courts, claiming 
that because of the charter which had abolished censure 
and confiscation, a minister had no right to suppress ' ' Le 
Roi s'amuse." Odillon Barrot was the author's counselor, 
but Hugo spoke also. The next day Paris had discovered 
that the poet and dramatist was also a wily orator. But 
the orator lost his case, as when he defended his son. The 
drama remained under the ministerial ban. The author 
then wrote to the ministry to relinquish the pensions still 
accorded him. The ministers refused to withdraw them ; 
but Hugo never drew them again. 

"Lucrece Borgia " was produced at the Porte St. Martin, 
and was successful. Hugo narrowly escaped a duel with 
the director of this theater, who appears to have been rather 
exacting. Some high words led M. Hugo to inform the 
director that "he awaited his orders," whereupon the 
manager sent him a challenge; but came a few hours after- 
wards to withdraw it, to apologize, and to own that he had' 
been very silly. 

"Marie Tudor" followed with moderate success at the 
Porte St. Martin; and in 1834, Hugo read " Angelo " to 
Mademoiselle Mars. This play of "Angelo" brought 
upon the stage at once and in strong contrast to each other, 
the splendid talents of those two women of genius, Dorval 
and Mars. 

Thanks to the good offices of M. Guizot who was min- 
ister in 1837, Hugo succeeded in securing a theater of 



32 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

which he was himself virtually the director, although it 
was conducted under another name. For this theater the 
author wrote in 1838 "Ruy Bias," the last act of which 
was written in a single day ; Frederick Lemaitre created the 
principal role. It was one of the most splendid produc- 
tions of his surprising genius, and gave to Hugo's valet- 
hero a significance and value which even the poet did not 
suppose that it possessed. The critics, wonderful to relate, 
were satisfied ; there were occasional hisses during the repre- 
sentations ; but these were noted as the last expiring efforts 
of the opposition to the now triumphant romantic school. 

Immediately after the appearance of " Ruy Bias," M. 
Hugo made a contract with a Paris publisher, agreeing to 
give him all his works and the profits resulting from com- 
plete editions of them for eleven years, for the sum of two 
hundred and forty thousand francs. 

" The Burgraves " was the last piece which Victor Hugo 
wrote for the theater. He had previously completed one 
called "The Twins, " which he never presented. "The 
Burgraves " was severely attacked by the press ; it was pro- 
duced in 1842-3 with questionable success. The charac- 
ters in it were too epic and colossal for the stage. 

In 1849, when Victor Hugo was a member of the Con- 
stituent Assembly, he made an eloquent speech on the 
" liberty of the theater" which closed with the following 
words: "I sum up my opinion in a sentence which I 
address to governments and legislators ; by according 
liberty you place the licenses and excesses of the theater 
under the censure of the public ; by the governmental 
censure you place them under its protection. Choose ! " 
He also delivered numerous eloquent addresses on 



VICTOR MARIE HUGO. 33 

this subject before the committee of the Council of State, 
created for the purpose of preparing a law regulating the 
theaters. 

When Victor Hugo became a member of the French 
Academy, in June of 1841, he had won distinguished 
honors and lasting fame as poet, as novelist, as essayist, 
and as dramatist. The history of that wonderful and touch- 
ing romance, " Notre Dame de Paris," is very curious. At 
the time that Hugo furnished the manuscript of "The 
Last Day of a Condemned Prisoner " to a publisher, he 
had also agreed to furnish for him, before the close of April, 
1829, a romance. He was so absorbed in his dramas, and 
the battles which he was- compelled to fight for their success, 
that he was a year behind time when the publisher, who 
had taken offense at Hugo for some trivial matter, sud- 
denly demanded the fulfillment of the contract. As it 
was impossible to deliver a romance which was not begun 
the publisher claimed damages. But the affair was finally 
arranged on the following basis : Hugo was to have five 
months in which to write the story. If he was not ready 
on the I St of December, he was to pay one tliousand 
francs for each week of delay. He began to write on the 
27th of July, 1830 ; the next day, the Champs Elysees 
presented the appearance of a bivouac ; the insurrection 
shook Paris to its center. But the writer was hindered in 
his work only once. That was when, walking out for an 
hour's exercise, he found that some soldiers had bound 
a youth of fourteen or fifteen years to a tree, and were 
about to shoot him. 

" What ! kill him ! " said Hugo, " Why ! he is but a 
child ! " 



34 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

" That doesn't matter," answered a soldier, " he dropped 
our captain from his horse, and he must suffer for it." 

But, by pleading long enough and by appealing to a 
general who was passing, Hugo obtained the youth's pardon. 

During these exciting, days, Hugo kept a voluminous 
diary of all the facts which interested him ; and published 
them, later, under the title of the "Journal of a Revolu- 
tionist of 1830." They form a part of the collection called 
" Literary and Philosophical Melanges." 

Meantime, he continued his romance, always inspired by 
the fear of a second breach of contract. But he had the 
misfortune to lose a number of note-books, in a sudden 
removal from one house to another at the time of the in- 
surrection, and he was reluctantly compelled to ask a new 
delay. The publisher agreed to wait until the following 
February. Hugo purchased a huge bottle of ink, wrapped 
himself in a warm woolen dressing-gown, locked up all 
his other clothes, that he might not be tempted to go out, 
and only left his writing-table at meal times, and when it 
was necessary to sleep. As he progressed with the work, 
his enthusiasm knew no bounds ; he was frantic with joy 
at his own conceptions, he worked in bitter December 
weather with his windows wide-open ; he ostracized him- 
self from his family and his friends. 

On the 14th of January, 1831, the romance was 
finished, and so was the bottle of ink. His first thought 
was to call the story "What there is in an Ink-bottle," 
but, on second thought, he was convinced that a picture 
of the morals and manners of Paris in the fifteenth century 
deserved a different title, and he called it "Notre Dame de 
Paris." In the description which he gave of it to the 



VICTOR MARIE HUGO. 35 

publisher, he wrote, " The book makes no historical pre- 
tensions, unless, perhaps, to paint, with a litile conscience 
and some science, the condition of manners, beliefs, laws, 
arts, and, in short, civilization in the fifteenth century. If 
it has any merit, it is that of being the work of imagina- 
tion, caprice, and "fantasy." 

The book appeared a few days after its completion. It 
was a grand success. The tragical figure of the priest 
who was goaded to his ruin by fatality ; the grotesque, 
yet tender and exquisite, portrait of Quasimodo, the 
hunchback ; the masterly conception of Esmeralda, and 
the detailed drawing which brought Louis XI. before 
the eyes of modern Parisians, " in his habit as he lived," 
at once stamped their author with the seal of greatness. 
In "Notre Dame," the reader found, too, for the first time, 
the full expression of the exaggerated affection which Hugo 
has possessed since childhood for quaint, massive, and 
gloomy architecture. He embalmed the fame and mem- 
ory of Notre Dame, in his immoital prose ; he taught 
Europe the true magnificence of the cathedral. He had 
contemplated two other volumes as sequels to "Notre 
Dame," the last of which was to have been called "The 
Hunchback's Son," but he relinquished these projects, as 
he became more and more engrossed in his dramatic efforts. 

A good critic has said that he can forgive' the numerous 
faults in Hugo's works, because of "the dreamy grace of 
the thought, and- the harmonious richness of the form in 
his verse." The qualities mentioned in this critical sen- 
tence are to be found in the majority of the poems which 
M. Hugo published from 1831 until 1845. Every great 
event, the advent of any supreme misfortune, the gusty pas- 



36 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

sage of some national passion across the country's horizon, 
awoke a profound echo in his heart. He wrote incessantly, 
his fiery intellect found daily expression in verse ; but it 
Avas not until after he had been awakened by suffering and 
the decree of exile to a passionate indignation that he gave 
the best evidences of his lyric genius. " The Orientales," 
" The Autumn Leaves" published in 183 1, "The Songs of 
Dawn" (1835), the " Inward Voices '' (1837), and the 
"Lights and Shades" (1840), were by no means all in 
the vein of solemn reverie, but it was evident that the poet 
was most at his ease when in the contemplative mood. 
His voice became a trumpet blast only after exile. 

Much of the best poetry which Victor Hugo wrote in the 
earlier half of his career is to be found in his dramas. 
Whenever they, are to-day produced upon the Parisian 
stage, their unique beauty, and the richness of the expres- 
sion which Hugo bestows upon each character, startle the 
modern theater-goers. If the claim of Hugo's friends, that 
he is the greatest Continental poet of the nineteenth cen- 
tury, holds good, it will be because it is largely based 
upon the evidence of genius displayed in his dramas. Each 
one of the persons in these plays is drawn with that mag- 
nificent profusion of gifts which characterizes the work of 
Shakespeare. " Marion Delorme " stands as a type of her 
class, and thousands through her utter their sorrow and 
despair. The story in each drama is always so striking, 
that it brings the poetry into much stronger relief than if 
the incidents were less dramatic, or the interest were less 
thrilling. In "Marion Delorme," the courtesan who longs 
to repent, who seeks an honest love, only to find it torn 
from her by force and circumstance; in " Hernani," the 



VICTOR MARIE HUGO. 37 

superb contrast of king and proscribed subject, and the 
grand monologue of Don Carlos before the tomb of Charle- 
magne ; in "Ruy Bias, " the triumphant lackey who, in- 
spired by the love of a queen, conducts an empire, and 
reproves the avarice and dishonesty of ministers ; in ' ' Le 
Roi s'amuse,"' the terrible figure of the jester, who panders 
to the vices of Francis I., and then is crushed under the 
vengeance of Heaven, which leads him to sacrifice, unwit- 
tingly, his own daughter to the debauched monarch ; in de- 
scribing each and all of these the story marches with majes- 
tic step to the inspiring music of the grandest poetry. In 
"Angelo" we get a glimpse of gloomy Padua, when the 
agents of the Venetian Republic were perpetrating their 
vilest tyrannies there. Although this drama and "Marie 
Tudor," with its masterly portrait of the " damned Italian 
who hath bewitched the queen," and its thrilling scenes 
beside the somber Thames and in the heart of ancient 
London, are written in prose, there is a poetic flavor in 
both, and the rhythm is often so complete that one does 
not miss the rhyme. " Cromwell " and " The Burgraves " 
are filled with colossal figures, which only the lofty im- 
agination of a great poet could conjure from the past. 
" Lucrezia Borgia," despite the repulsive nature of the 
story, is pathetic and affecting, considered as a poem. 

Hugo presented himself as a candidate for the honors 
of the Academy in 1836, in 1839, and in 1840, without 
success. When he was received in 1841, his introductory 
discourse was political rather than literary ; and was filled 
with characteristically audacious suggestions. He acquitted 
himself admirably, in 1845, of the formidable task assigned 
him — that of the reception, with the usual honorary address, 



38 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

of his adversary, M. Saint-Marc Girardin, In the same 
year, he also welcomed to the Academy M. Sainte-Beuve, 
always one of his dearest friends and most cordial advisers. 

Crowned with laurels and heaped with honors, the poet 
next devoted himself to travel, and visited numerous Euro- 
pean countries. He was suddenly recalled from Spain in 
1843 by the tragical death, by drowning, of his daughter 
and her husband, Charles Vacquerie. This serious afflic- 
tion cast a shadow over his life, and colored nearly all the 
poems in the volume called "Contemplations" with a pro- 
found melancholy. 

The doors of the Chamber of Peers were opened by Louis 
Philippe to Hugo in 1845. The author had long had a po- 
litical ambition, which this promotion in a certain manner 
gratified. But the revolution of 1848 gave him unexpected 
opportunities for increasing his fame and his power. He was 
sent to the Constituent Assembly by the city of Paris, at the 
close of that partial June election which brought Proudhon, 
Changarnier, Fould, Lagrange, Hugo, and Louis Napo- 
leon into public notice, as politicians, together. Although 
he was no longer royalist at heart, he was still conservative 
in a general sense. He willingly voted with the demo- 
cratic party on humane questions ; but he was firm in his 
support of the "Right" on party measures. Up to the date 
of the dissolution of the " Constituante, " he voted pretty 
regularly with the ' ' party of order, " as it was then called. 

There were plenty of orators and writers ready to call 
him an apostate when, elected to the Legislative Assembly 
from the Department of the Seine, a little kter, he went 
over to the Left, and became one of the leading orators 
and chief lights of the republican party. He spoke with 



VICTOR MARIE HUGO. 39 

brilliancy 5.nd passion on the Roman. question, on projects 
for instruction, on electoral reform, on the press laws, on 
the limitations of universal suffrage, the revision of the Con- 
stitution, and many other important issues. He fought a 
three years' battle in the Tribune with M. de Montalem- 
bert, who was a formidable adversary. The disputes of 
these two renowned men on Catholic questions have not 
yet been forgotten in France. Naturally, as Hugo's lan- 
guage was vehement and denunciatory, and as he endeav- 
ored to unmask the ''President of the Republic," whose 
future turpitude he had already suspected, he was furiously 
attacked in turn by all his adversaries, who called him a 
"trimmer," a "demagogue," and endeavored to bring 
upon him the imputation of insincerity before the people. 
His new associates were even prevailed upon to look at 
him with some little suspicion. But he has, since 1849, 
been an earnest, ardent republican. "They called me an 
apostate, me who thought myself an apostle," he has some- 
where written. And in his " Deeds and Words," speaking 
of himself, he says : 

"The man who to-day publishes this collection, and 
who throws open the doors of his life to his contemporaries, 
in these volumes, has passed through many errors. He 
means, if God gives him time enough, to recite them un- 
der the title of ' The History of the Internal Revolutions 
of an Honest Conscience.' Every man who is sincere can 
retrace his route over that road to Damascus which is so dif- 
ferent for different minds. This man, as he has somewhere 
told you, is the son of a Vendean lady, the friend of Madame 
de La Rochejaquelein ; and of a soldier of the Revolution 
and the Empire, the friend of Desaix, of Jourdan, and Jo- 



40 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

seph Bonaparte ; and he has suffered from the conse- 
quences of a complex and solitary education given him by 
a proscribed republican and a proscribed priest. But the 
patriot was always strong in him, beneath the Vendean ; 
he was for Napoleon in 1813, for the Boilrbons in 1814 ; 
like nearly all the men born at the beginning of this cen- 
tury, he has been everything that the age has been ; illogical 
and honest, Legitimist and Voltairian, a literary Christian, a 
liberal Bonapartist, a socialist groping away from royalty ; 
shades of opinion curiously real — surprising to-day. He 

has always acted in perfect good faith He declares 

here that never, in all that he has written, even in his 
youthful books, will any one find a line against liberty. 
There was a battle in his soul between the royalty which the 
Catholic priest imposed upon him, and the liberty which 
the republican soldier recommended to him ; liberty con- 
quered ! 

" In 1848 he had not made up his mind as to the definite 
social form to be adopted. Singularly enough, one might 
almost say, that at that time liberty hid the Republic from 
his vision. In 1848 the country was not far from an 
Eighteenth of Fructidor.* The Insurrection of June was 
fatal — fatal for those who lighted it — fatal for those who 
extinguished it. He" (Hugo still speaks of himself in the 
third person) " fought against this insurrection ; he was 
one of the sixty representatives sent by the Assembly to 
the barricades. But, after the victory, he was compelled 

* The Eighteenths of Fructidor (August-September) have this 
unpleasant feature, that they give the model and the pretext for 
Eighteenths of Brumaire (October-November), and that they mal;e 
the Republic itself give Liberty cruel wounds. 



VICTOR MARIE HUGO. 4I 

to separate himself from the conquerors. To conquer, 
and then to offer your hand to the conquered ; such is the 
law of his Ufe. But his associates did otherwise. 

" One day at the Assembly, the representative Lagrange, 
a brave man, came to him and said, 'With whom are you 
in sympathy here .? ' He answered, ' with Liberty. ' ' And 
what are you doing ? ' continued Lagrange. He an- 
swered, ' I am waiting.' 

"After June 1848, he did wait; but after June 1849, 
he waited no longer. 

"The light which sprang out of the events of the period, 
entered into his spirit. . . . When he saw Rome bound 
and gagged in the name of France, when he saw the ma- 
jority, up to that time hypocritical, suddenly throw aside 
the mask through whose lips it had shouted, V^ive la Repu- 
blique ! seventeen times, on the 4th of May, 1848 ; when he 
saw, after the 13th of June, the triumph of all the coa- 
litions which were the enemies of progress ; when he 
noted their cynical joy, he was sad ; he understood, and at 
the moment when the hands of all the conquerors were 
held out to him to drag him into their ranks, he felt that 
he was one of the conquered. There was a corpse on the 
field ; every one cried, ' It is the Republic ! ' He went 
to it, and found that it was Liberty. . . . Then he saw 
before him a fall, defeat, ruin, affront, proscription, and he 
said : ' It is well.' 

"Suddenly, on the 15th of June, he went into the As- 
sembly, and protested. From that day forward, the union 
in his soul of the Republic with Liberty was complete. 
From that day forward, without truce, without relaxation, 
obstinately, foot by foot, he fought for those great calum- 



42 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

niated ones." Finally, on the second of December, 1851, 
he received what he expected : twenty years of exile. 

"This is the story of what has been called his apos- 
tasy." 

Hugo the "apostate" not only battled against the "re- 
public without liberty " with his tongue in the Assembly, 
but he founded a journal and wrote vigorously in its 
columns. This paper, the Evenevmii, which first appeared 
in 1848, was pursued and suppressed, times innumerable. 

The coup d'elat found M. Hugo in a prominent and 
dangerous position. He was one of the first to counsel 
an appeal to arms, and was also one of three appointed 
by the Assembly to make an eff'ort to secure the aid of the 
legions of the National Guard. Crowds surrounded him 
in the stre'&ts, and inquired what it was the duty of the 
people to do. He urged them to rebel against the coup 
d'elat. A shop-keeper, who heard him haranguing the 
people, came to him and said : 

" Speak lower ; if they should hear you talking like that 
you would be shot." 

"Well," answered Hugo, "you would bear my body 
through the town, and my death would be a good thing, 
if it should lead to the application of God's justice." 

The excitement at one time was so great that Hugo was 
tempted himself to head a movement of the people, and 
to attack the army which supported Bonaparte. But he 
was stayed in this mad project. He dictated the famous 
proclamation, in which he declared Louis Napoleon a 
traitor, an outlaw, and a violator of the Constitution ; and 
a little later edited the proclamation of the Committee of 
Resistance. Despite all his eloquence, despite his cour- 



VICTOR MARIE HUGO. 43 

age, which in those dangerous days was always unflinch- 
ing ; despite his heroic desire to sacrifice himself, he was 
finally thrust into exile. The first list of "enemies of the 
dominant power destined to be removed from France," 
bore Hugo's name upon it. 

,The poet left his country on the nth of December, 
185 1. He would gladly have remained and suffered im- 
prisonment, but his friends urged him not to do so. The 
Empire was all-powerful ; was, strangely enough, winning 
praise and sympathy from countries freer and happier than 
France. M. Hugo Was doomed to see Napoleon hailed 
as the Saviour, rather than the destroyer of his nation. 

The Committee of Resistance, to which Hugo belonged, 
changed its place of meeting twenty-seven times, before 
the agents of the Empire succeeded in driving it out. At 
last, Hugo, in imminent danger, was prevailed upon to 
go to Brussels. He went there, and sent back to the fron- 
tier eloquent protests against the tyrannies consummated 
at home. In Brussels he wrote a "History of the Second 
of December," still unpublished; and "Napoleon the 
Little." This latter volume was a magnificent invective. 
Despite the vigilance of the police, it was circulated from 
time to time in France. In it the author pilloried the 
tyrant ; and perhaps, also, immortalized him. "Napoleon 
the Little " will live long after many other works of con- 
temporary authors on the same subject have been forgotten, 
even by librarians and book-hunters. 

The invisible but powerful influence of the Empire pro- 
cured Hugo's expulsion from Belgium. On the ist of 
August, 1852, the poet embarked at Antwerp for Eng- 
land, and before leaving Belgian soil, made a speech in 



44 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

favor of freedom, which echoed throughout Europe. He 
passed a few days in England, and then betook himself to 
the Island of Jersey, in the English Channel. 

Hugo's position, when he first found himself in exile, 
was far from pleasant. Of all that he had possessed there 
remained to him but seven thousand five hundred francs, 
annual income. His career as a dramatist was at an end, 
if the Empire remained in power ; and with the close of 
this career the exile had lost an income of sixty thousand 
francs per year. The hasty sale of his furniture had 
brought but thirteen thousand francs. He had a family of 
nine persons to support, and was compelled to go at once 
to work. He rented a modest house on the Marine Ter- 
race, in Jersey, for fifteen hundred francs per annum, and 
labored night and day. His first Belgian publishers 
treated him badly, some of them printing his works with- 
out rendering him any account. That remarkable vol- 
ume of poems " Les Chatiments," in which he scourged 
the men of the Second of December with the full force of 
his talent, not only brought him nothing originally, but 
actually cost him twenty-five hundred francs. The total 
profits of the editions of the " Chatiments " for eighteen 
years, were taken by foreign publishers. 

In 1855 the French Empire prevailed upon the English 
Government to expel Victor Hugo from Jersey. On the 
27th of October, 1855, in the morning, a gentleman pre- 
sente^d himself at Marine Terrace. 

""I am the constable of St. Clement," he said. "I am 
charged by His Excellency, the Governor of Jersey, to 
tell you that by virtue of a decision of the Crown, you can 
no longer reside on this island, and that you are required 



VICTOR MARIE HUGO. 45 

to leave it by the second of next November. The motive of 
this measure taken with regard to you, is your signature 
to a ' declaration ' posted in the streets of Saint Helier, 
and published in the Journal L' Homme." 

"Very well, sir," was Hugo's answer. 

He had, in fact, signed a declaration disapproving the 
expulsion of some other refugees whose expression of 
opinion had given offense to the English Government, 
urged to its action by Bonapartist agents. He made a 
protest, but quitted Jersey on the stipulated second of 
November, and went to Guernsey. Indignation meetings, 
expressing the contempt of the British people for the 
action of the Government, were held in London and 
Glasgow. Hugo had the pleasure, five years after his ex- 
pulsion, of addressing an immense audience in Saint 
Helier, in favor of Garibaldi's projects. An address^ 
signed by five hundred of the principal inhabitants of the 
island, begging him to come among them, is in his pos- 
session. 

In Guernsey he was allowed to enjoy repose after per- 
secution. He was among French-speaking folk, yet out 
of the reach of French law. The somber beauties of the 
stormy Channel, the rugged coasts, the mysterious dawns 
and twilights by the sea, the superstitions of the rude pop- 
ulations, and the hundreds of legends hovering about the 
towns, furnished him with new inspirations, and with rich 
additions to his literary capital. 

The story of " Hauteville House," the modest mansion in 
which Hugo lived in Guernsey during the long period of 
his exile, and which he still leases and occasionally 
inhabits, is familiar to most general readers. There the 



46 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

poet wrote many of his famous works ; there he taught his 
sons the lesson of conscience and liberty ; there he busied 
himself with works of charity ; thence he sent out letters, 
pamphlets, addresses, on every great event in Europe and 
America. He scorned and spurned the amnesty which the 
Empire offe-ed him and his fellow exiles in 1859. He 
laughed at the idea of reconciliation with " M. Bonaparte," 
and in an open letter concerning that potentate, he once 
Wfote : 

" M. Bonaparte is right; there is, in fact, a personal 
quarrel between him and myself; the old personal quarrel 
of the judge on his bench and the accused in the dock." 

It was from Hauteville House that the protest against 
John Brown's execution went out ; it was there that the 
poet wrote Pj-o Chrisius sicut Chrisius as John Brown's 
epitaph. It was there that the "Legend of the Ages," of 
which a second series is now in preparation — was written in 
1859. When this poem was first issued, Hugo announced 
that it Avas but the first part of a trilogy. Perhaps he 
intends now to complete it. 

The publication of " Les Miserables " was perhaps the 
crowning literary event of Hugo's exile. This astonishing 
work, translated into many different languages, and taking 
hold of the hearts of all peoples by its marvelous delinea- 
tion of human sufferings and passions, brought the author 
new fame and much-needed money. The towering figure 
of Valjean, the exquisite delineation of the loves of IMarius 
and Cosette, the wraith of Fantine, the immortal concep- 
tions of Gavroche, the girl Thenadier and the good arch- 
bishop, thrilled every reader. The author's dramatic 
power had matured since he wrote "Marion Delorme " 



VICTOR MARIE HUGO. 4/ 

and " Angelo ; " and became almost startling in its intense 
effect in the descriptions of the defeat of Napoleon at 
Waterioo, and of the street-fighting in Revolution time in 
Paris. 

After the appearance of " Les Miserables," great num- 
bers of Frenchmen consulted together as to the proper 
means of doing honor to the exiled poet and romancer. 
His publishers at Brussels organized a huge banquet at 
which M. Hugo was invited to preside. When the poet 
came to the table he found there Louis Blanc, Eugene 
Pelletan and a host of eminent journalists of all countries. 
Champfieury saluted Hugo in the name of the writers of 
prose, and Theodore de Bauville in behalf of the poets. 
This brilliant reception, Avhich reflected so much credit 
upon the Belgian publishers and public, echoed loudly 
throughout France, and even the supporters of the Em- 
pire would have been glad to have shared in according 
literary honors to one of the greatest of living French- 
men. 

Hugo returned to Guernsey, and planned new romances. 
He was now universally recognized as the chief of the ro- 
mantic school ; he had abolished the tame and stiff classi- 
cal rules, and put life and movement into' French litera- 
ture. Whatever the most conservative and prosaic of his 
countrymen might be inclined to think of the passionate 
headlong way in which he flung himself upon the solution 
of all leading and difficult questions of the time, they 
admired the splendor of his descriptions, the mingled majes- 
ty and tenderness of his pathos, and the vigor and vivacity 
of his character-sketches. The hates which his leading 
role in one of the great revolutions in French literature had 



48 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

engendered, were nearly all dead when " Les Miserables" 
appeared. 

The poet amused himself simply at Guernsey. He took 
long walks among the rocks and cliffs ; he gave dinners to 
poor children every week ; on Christmas eves he raised the 
gift-tree on his hospitable hearth, and gathered the orphans 
and the poor about it. " There are," he has said, " two 
manners of building churches. You may build them with 
stone, or with flesh and blood. A poor wretch whose suf- 
ferings you have solaced is a church which you have built, 
from which prayer and gratitude are continually offered up 
to God."* 

' ' The Toilers of the Sea " and ' ' The Man who 
Laughs " were received in Europe with the same favor ac- 
corded " Les Miserables." They showed clearly the influ- 
ence which a long sojourn among the natural wonders of 
the Channel Islands, and a familiarity with the English and 
French coasts, had exerted upon the poet. The figure of 
Gilliatt in "The Toilers of the Sea," is almost epic in its 
simple grandeur. In this strange book, too, through 
whose descriptions one can always hear the solemn roar of 
the ocean, Hugo manifested a strong sense of the humor- 
ous, which he had perhaps gained from much association 
with people of partially English habits of mind. In his 
early dramas, and even in his first romances, his wit, his 
satire always had in them gleams of ferocity ; the desire to 
wound with the sharp arrow always prevailed. He has 



* Hugo's Guernsey dinner to poor children suggested a similar 
charity in London, which finally brought weekly sunshine to six 
thousand little ones. 



VICTOR MARIE HUGO. -. 49 

been accused of a too complete worship of the grotesque in 
"The Toilers of the Sea," but only by those who cannot, 
and never could possess the faculty of seeing nature with 
the poet's eyes. " The Toilers of the Sea " should have 
been written in verse. As it is, however, the prose has a 
strange quality, an actual flavor of the wildness of the 
scenes, and the half-savage simplicity of the people is de- 
scribed. It loses much by translation. 

No one but Hugo could have imagined the quaint con- 
ceit of the companionship of Ursus the man, and Homo 
the wolf in "The Man who Laughs;" none but he the 
sad and tender picture of the infant bridal — the uncon- 
scious betrothal of the deformed boy und the blind girl- 
babe. None but he could have pictured, with such terrible 
and withal truthful force, the shipwreck of the motley vag- 
a]ponds and pirates in the same romance ; none but he 
would have dreamed of making them recite the Lord's 
prayer in their different languages as the frail bark sinks 
beneath them into the remorseless waves. There are occa- 
sional bits of over- writing ; segments of exaggerated color ; 
fantastic patch-works which excite smiles, in this remark- 
able book ; but none which, on the whole, detract from 
the power and fullness of the verdict which must inevitably 
be rendered in favor of Hugo's genius. 

The years passed rapidly for the poet, for his life was 
terribly active. The memorable date of 1869, epoch when 
the Empire showed the most decided evidences of weakness, 
found him battling valiantly as of old, appealing to Amer- 
ica in behalf of Crete ; writing words of encouragement 
to the persecuted founders of the Rappel in Paris ; acting 
as president of the " Congress of the Friends of Peace" at 
3 



50 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

Lausanne in Switzerland, and there grandiloquently salut- 
ing "the future revolution," which, as it happened, was 
only twelve months away. Late in 1869 and early in 
1870, he repeatedly testified his profound admiration for and 
sympathy with the United States by letters written on im- 
portant events in America. In 1870, he labored stead- 
fastly against the plebiscile which Napoleon had placed 
before the French people, and in one of his letters said 
that the plebiscite was ^n attempt " to render arsenic pala- 
table," When the Franco-Prussian war broke out, he 
urged the ladies of Guernsey to prepare bandages and lint 
for the wounded, and to send' half of those charitable 
stores to the French, and the other half to the Germans. 

The violence of Victor Hugo's protest against the 
plebiscite resulted in a citation, in May of 1870, to appear 
before the Sixth Correctional Chamber of Paris, to answer 
to a charge of having endeavored to excite hatred of and 
contempt for "the government." But when the exile 
returned to Paris, after the revolution of the fourth of 
September, in which the Empire had crumbled away, there 
was no one to molest him. Hugo's first work was to pub- 
lish a proclamation inviting the Germans to declare the 
Republic, and to make peace with France. When the 
insurrection of the 31st of October (the Communal out- 
break during the siege) occurred, his name appeared upon 
the rebellious committee list ; but he disavowed its use, 
and subsequently refused to be a candidate in the elec- 
tions for the Mayors of Paris.* 

The poet resolutely remained in the queen city through- 

* In Paris each " arrondissement," or ward, has a mayor and an 
" adjoint." 



VICTOR MARIE HUGO. 5I 

out the siege. He wrote almost incessantly. He returned 
to his poems for consolation in his domestic afflictions 
— one of his sons had died some time before the close of 
his exile — and amid the sorrow which overwhelmed him 
as he looked upon the' temporary wreck of his country. 
He labored and suffered with the humblest; his example 
was inspiring and his words were as good as deeds. 

M. Hugo was elected to the National Assembly which 
met at Bordeaux just before the outbreak of the Commune. 
The Department of the Seine gave him two hundred and 
fourteen thousand one hundred and sixty-nine, out of three 
hundred and twenty-eight thousand nine hundred and 
seventy votes cast. He was one of the earliest to make a 
speech against the preliminaries for peace, apparently think- 
ing that, as the Germans had lost their great opportunity 
for a reconciliation after Sedan, it might be as well to fight 
the battle out. He resigned because the members of the 
Right refused to listen to him on one occasion, as they had 
refused to listen to Garibaldi three weeks previous. Yet 
he himself was scarcely more tolerant when an imperialist 
endeavored to climb into the tribune to apologize for the 
fallen Empire. 

A' few days after his resignation, his second son died 
suddenly, and Hugo returned to his beloved Paris with his 
dead, only to find the city on the eve of the great insurrec- 
tion of the 1 8th of March. During the Commune, he 
remained in Paris ; defended the Colonne Vendome in 
spirited verse against the attacks of the populace ; and made 
frequent endeavors to stay the tide of blood which flowed 
so freely there. At the close of the insurrection, he went 
to Brussels, and, in May, wrote a letter condemning the 



52 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

decision of the Belgian Government relative to the insur- 
g;ents. In his letter, he publicly invited Communist refugees 
to seek an asylum in his house. The Belgian ministry 
thought that this invitation was compromising to the na- 
tion's interests, and a royal decree required M. Hugo's 
immediate departure. Before he could go, his dwelling 
was besieged by a furious mob, and he was rescued by the 
police with difficulty. He once more departed for Lon- 
don, as he had done when exiled from Belgium years be- 
fore. When he returned to Paris, after a brief absence, 
his first task was to ask for Rochefort's pardon, which was 
of course denied him. He was once more presented as 
the candidate of the radical press of Paris for the Assembly, 
but only conditionally accepted the mandate offered him. 
He was beaten, receiving only ninety-five thousand votes. 

"The Terrible Year," a volume of poems reciting the 
events and the most remarkable episodes of the months of 
Prussian siege and Communal insurrection, was one of 
the fruits of Victor Hugo's sojourn in France during the 
twelve months after his return from exile. In this volume 
the poet's genius appears to have culminated ; although 
there is but little of the tenderness and subtlety which one 
finds in " Songs of the Streets and Woods," and in the 
"Odes arid Ballads," there is a wealth of lofty pathos, of 
sublim.e invective, of beautiful and vivid narration, aiid of 
almost superhuman pity. This volume was published by 
the author himself, in 1872, and was an unqualified suc- 
cess. The " Chatiments," in a new edition, also sold to 
the extent of a hundred thousand copies in the days of 
the siege. Many of the poems of the "Chatiments" were 
recited in the principal theaters. 



VICTOR MARIE HUGO. 53 

"Ruy Bias" was revived at the Odeon Theater in 1872, 
and ran for a hundred nights ; the average of the receipts 
every evening being five thousand francs. Honors and 
demands for his works in every elaborate form showered 
upon him. The " Livre des Meres," "The Rhine," a 
volume of early travels in Germany; "William Shake- 
speare," a critical study; the little volume called "My 
Son ; " the apostrophe to Paris ; the selections known as 
"Literary and Philosophical Essays;" — all his writings 
have been sought since the war with an eagerness almost 
unparalleled in the histor}^ of literature. The appearance 
of "Ninety-Three," that grand picture of the struggle be- 
tween royalists and republicans in La Vendee, was gener- 
ally believed to be the author's final extended effort. But 
there seems no limit to his fertility. He has published 
since 1872 a voluminous record of his career, classified as 
"Before Exile," " During Exile," and " After Exile ; " a 
treatise on "The Art of Being a Grandfather," — an art 
which he tenderly cultivates in his old age ; has planned 
numerous new volumes of verse, and is said to have left 
a powerful dramatic poem, which is not to be produced 
until after his death, as it deals rather severely >vith Holy 
Church. He is interested yearly in some journalistic pro- 
ject, and takes a vital interest in current events. 

To-day, a serene old man, he lives quietly and modestly 
in Paris, up three fiights of stairs, in the Boulevard de 
Clichy. His fine, keen face, framed in a grizzled beard, 
his penetrating gaze, his earnest and concentrated manner, 
hardly allow one to believe that Victor Hugo is nearly as 
old as this century. Few men at seventy-three are as alert 
and vigorous, even though they have led far less exciting 



54 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

lives. He is the center of a brilliant society which adores 
him ; he is universally called Cher Mdiire, ' ' Dear Master, " 
by the literary and artistic guild ; retains the charming 
eifusive manners of the old school, putting all the younger 
Frenchmen to shame by the excess of his gallantry ; and 
now and then goes to Guernsey to hear the song of the 
sea, and to read his poems by the beach. He always wel- 
comes American visitors with extreme cordiality, and some- 
times speaks longingly of a once projected visit to the 
United States, a visit which could only bring him new 
honors and added fortune. 



Louis Adolphe Thiers. 




N the i6th of February, 1871, at a late hour of 
the afternoon, the National Assembly of France, 
which had then been three days in session in 
the theater at Bordeaux, was startled by a singular incident. 
The previous meetings had been stormy ; the seven hun- 
dred and fifty deputies had wasted much time in wrangling 
and recrimination ; and all parties seemed — so great was 
their zeal yi tormenting each other — to have forgotten that 
they were called together to decide upon definite peace or 
farther war with Prussia. France was prostrate ; Alsace 
and Lorraine were in the hands of the conquerors ; the 
country was without definite government, a formidable 
insurrection was threatened in Paris, and a spirit of unrest 
and distrust was manifest everywhere in the provinces. The 
time was ripe for action ; without it France seemed on the 
brink of complete ruin ; yet the members of the Assetnbly 
made little, if any, progress. 

The theater was crowded with celebrities from all coun- 
tries. The members of the Assembly occupied the par- 



56 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

quette. BeWnd the tribune, in the President's desk, sat 
the statuesque and imposing M. Grevy, who had presided 
over the Assembly of 1848. On the right were the Con- 
servatives, with Thiers and other prominent statesmen on 
the frgnt seats ; on the left were the Republicans and Radi- 
cals, among whom were Gambetta, Hugo, Rochefort, 
Louis Blanc, and a host of other literary and political 
notables. "Incidents" were numerous. The slightest 
covert allusion of a satirical character to the political senti- 
ments of one party aroused a veritable storm of hisses and 
reproaches from the other. There were moments w'hen 
the honorable representatives seemed likely to come to 
blows. President Grevy found difficulty in establishing 
order and silence long enough to allow M. Keller, the 
deputy chosen to represent the delegation from Alsace and 
Lorraine, to make his declaration. When he had made 
it, not without traces of genuine emotion in voice and 
manner, announcing that the two provinces did not wish 
to be alienated from France, and asserting the inviolable 
right of their inhabitants to remain members of the French 
nation, a frightful hubbub ensued, and M. Grevy sank 
back into his chair in despairing attitude. The National 
Assembly seemed more like a gathering of wild beasts 
than like a collection of intelligent and accomplished 
statesmen. 

While the confusion was at its height, there suddenly 
appeared in the middle aisle a little old man, with 
wrinkled face and stubbly white hair ; he seemed to have 
got there by magic, for no one had seen him spring into 
his place ; he looked around for an instant, much as a 
sailor glances over the sky in a storm ; then, stretching out 



L0UIS ADOLPHE THIERS. 57 

his short right arm he made a curious down-stroke, which 
conveyed an impression of intense vitality and will. 

Profound silence was established in a moment. The 
old gentleman thereupon made another gesture, throwing 
his arm up, as if to say, — " Good ! now you will listen ? " 
He then, in a thin, querulous, piping, but distinctly 
audible voice, began a sharp practical address. Every 
member listened with the utmost attention, and no one 
dared to interrupt him. He spoke for five minutes, ner- 
vously pounding the air from time to time, and sometimes 
hurling his words at^ the listeners, in a manner which 
made them cringe. He counseled moderation, accord, 
decency ; but, above all, instant action. 

"The settlement of the Alsace-Lorraine question," said 
he, "will virtually decide whether we shall have peace, or 
continued war with Prussia." Then, with an imperious 
gesture of command, he turned away. " Come," he said, 
"let us to our committee-rooms, and let us say what we 
think." 

Two hours later, the commission appointed by the As- 
sembly to recommend a chief of executive power, an- 
nounced that its choice had fallen upon M. Thiers, who 
was none other than the little old man with the wrinkled 
face, and the stubbly white hair. A few moments there- 
after, the Assembl)^ which seemed in some mysterious 
manner suddenly to have obtained possession of its senses, 
■proclaimed M. Thiers the head of the French Republic ; 
but not before the old man himself had unconcernedly 
and rapidly made his way out of the theater, as if he had 
forgotten something at home. The session was closed at 
once, and in less than a quarter of an hour the English 
3* 



58 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

ambassador called upon M. Thiers at his hotel, and in- 
formed him that her Majesty's government had recognized 
la Republique Francaise. 

There was not a little grumbling at the fiery impatience 
and the dogmatism of M. Thiers during the exciting days 
thereafter, while the Assembly was wavering between a de- 
cision for peace or war. But there was never an hour 
during those sessions when the venerable statesman could 
not, by sheer force of will, and by his luminous exposi- 
tion of the exigencies of the situation, command atten- 
tion and almost compel obedience. His hard common 
sense vanquished the exalted and illogical sentiment of 
the 'Svar party," which was never willing to take into ac- 
count the broken condition of France ; and to his short 
and sharp speeches — always emphasized by nervous gestures 
— was due the influence in the Assembly which led to the 
necessary vote, according Alsace and Lorraine to Prussia, 
and agreeing to the payment of a war indemnity of five mil- 
lions of francs. His southern blood, always betraying itself 
in his gestures, in his intense vivacity, never troubled the 
cold precision of his thought. While many of the wisest 
of French statesmen were now and then brought to the 
brink of despair, he never lost his head for an instant, but 
looked events calmly in the face, and had a remedy for 
every dilemma. It was not without sobs and tears that he 
described to the Assembly at Bordeaux, the details of the 
terrible bargain forced upon him by the Prussians ; but 
the moment that he saw his own grief was likely to weak- 
en the parliamentary morals, he was again hard and un- 
compromising in exterior. His enemies are fond of say- 
ing of him, that he rules men by appealing to their pas- 



L'OUIS ADOLPHE THIERS. 59 

•sions; and they have the courage to say this, despite the 
fact that, for half a century, he has constantly been en- 
gaged in recalling Frenchmen to their sober senses. 
From the moment that he darted into the middle aisle of 
the theater-parquette at Bordeaux, until the 14th of May, 
1873, when he resigned his position as chief of executive 
power, he was the supreme ruler in France. Nothing 
was done without him. His work was visible in every 
department of administration ; the ministers, during his 
regime, simply obeyed his commands. 

The great men of France often spring from the lower 
classes of the people, and Louis Adolphe Thiers is a strik- 
ing illustration of this fact. He was of very humble origin, 
and was early in life separated from the relatives of his 
father, who was a locksmith, and brought up by his mother's 
family — once rich, but at the time of Thiers' birth, reduced 
to pinching poverty. Born in Marseilles, April 16, 1797, 
Thiers studied and won a prize at the Lycee in that city ; 
and then went to the college at Aix, where he led a kind 
of antic existence, which at first did him some harm. In 
those days the Academy was divided into savans of a 
royalist turn, and savans of the liberal opposition. The 
Academy offered a prize for eloquence. The subject 
being an Elegy on the Character of Vanvcnargues. Thiers, 
who was in those days rather pompous and florid in his 
speech-making, sent in an elegy which was judged worthy 
of the prize, so far as its literary merits were concerned, 
but which the royalist members of the Academy found un- 
suited to their political taste, so that they adjourned their 
decision until the following year. When the time arrived 
for a new trial Thiers sent the same manuscript, but at the 



6o BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

same time prepared another with a view to catching royalist 
approbation, and dated and mailed from Paris. The acad- 
emicians fell into the trap, and the ingenious Thiers 
obtained both the first and second prizes ; whereupon he 
pocketed his honors, quitted Provence and came up to 
Paris. 

Thiers at once entered journalism, and made it the step- 
ping-stone to politics. He manifested early in life that 
versatility and broad range of knowledge which have given 
him a world-wide reputation. He joined the staff of the 
Gonstiiutionnel, and after having had a lively experience and 
many quarrels in consequence of the freedom with which 
he wrote in the columns of that journal, he founded the 
National m 1830, with Armand Carrel ; became its editor- 
in-chief, and was a sharp critic in politics. At the same 
time he was vigorously engaged in making studies for his 
" History of the Revolution," whose appearance created a 
sensation. He was among prominent men from the out- 
set of his career in Paris, and took an active part- in the 
movements which led to placing the Due d'Orleans on 
the throne. His influence grew yearly, and he finally 
entered the Council of State, and was a sub-secretary at the 
finance-office, under Baron Louis. His journalistic record 
was a good though vehement one. He wrote on art, on 
the drama, on society and political parties, Avith equal 
freedom. He contemplated at one time a " General His- 
tory of the World," and was just starting on an exploring 
expedition, when a change in the situation of parties led 
him to found the National. This was as thoroughly, im- 
pudent and audacious under Charles X. as was Rochefort's 
Za«/£r«£ under the Empire. It was in the National \h2X the 



LOUIS ADOLPHE THIERS. 6l 

famous' editorial entitled "The King reigns but does not 
govern," first appeared, a philippic which was copied in a 
hundred forms, and which led the royalist judges of the 
time to make many severe though unsuccessful efforts to 
crush the paper by fines and processes. 

The young journalist and politician speedily acquired 
great honors under the Orleans regime. Even while in an 
obscure position he had prompted and inspired the higher 
officers of the cabinet, and it was not astonishing, therefore, 
that he was offered the position of Minister of Finance. He 
declined this office, and was almost immediately thereafter 
elected to the Chamber of Deputies by the good people of 
Aix, who had always cherished an affection for him. In 
the Chamber he soon gave evidence of his growing talents 
as an orator, and his capacity for leading and mastering 
men was plainly shadowed forth. 

From the time of his arrival in Paris from Provence 
until 1840, his career was wonderfully brilliant. He was 
ultra-French in his views, aims, and ambitions ; sometimes 
reckless in his expressions, and gradually came to be known 
as a kind of e7tfant terrible in European politics. He 
almost daily displayed the same passionate energy which he 
showed on the occasion w'hen he drew up his famous 
"Protest against the Ordinances," a protest Avritten and 
first read in the office of the National. When he had read 
it to the liberal deputies and journalists of the day, and 
some one suggested that it "be printed," M. Thiers cried 
out, "Printed unsigned? We want names and heads at 
the end of such a document ! In straits like these a 
patriot should feel that he has no alternative but the guil- 
lotine or victoiy." 



62 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

During the ministry of Casimer P(§rier, M. Thiers was 
not a member of the cabinet, but after the death of the 
great high tory minister, who had always regretted helping 
to overturn Charles X., he was recalled to power, and was 
at first given the portfolio of Minister of Public Instruction. 
This appointment did not, however, meet popular appro- 
bation-, and M. Thiers finally took the Ministry of the In- 
terior. While at this post he distinguished himself by the 
arrest of the Duchesse de Berri, thus putting an end to a 
revolution which was creating the greatest alarm in 
Europe. The Legitimists are accustomed to say, that 
Thiers acted meanly in employing the secret service funds 
to buy the man who betrayed the Duchesse de Berri ; and 
this is the only accusation they bring against his fair fame. 
He next became Minister of Public Works ; was active with 
other members of the cabinet in the measures which led to 
the siege and capture of Antwerp ; presented and carried 
through in the Chamber a law voting one hundred million 
francs for public improvements, and many projects of mu- 
nicipal and departmental law ; inaugurated the statue of 
Napoleon on the Colonne Vendome, only to see it pulled 
down a generation later by the Communist faction ; and 
engaged in the discussion of the treaty concerning Ameri- 
can indemnities, a dispute which led to the retirement of 
M. de Broglie. M. Thiers then again took up the portfolio 
of Minister of the Interior, and was active in measures 
tending to repress the bloody revolution in Lyons and 
Marseilles. Later, he was at the head of the cabinet, and 
succeeded admirably until he found the country unwilling 
to send troops to help Spain in the affair of La Granja, 
whereupon he and his colleagues resigned, and he became 



L'OUIS ADOLPHE THIERS. 63 

one of the leaders of the Left Center in the Chamber. 
From that time until 1840, he was often at the height of 
power, and led a checkered existence. He faced the Re- 
public in 1848 boldly, and voted for Cavaignac, after he 
had done his best to form a successful ministry for the 
king, and had seen it and the royal power swept away by 
the revolution. When at last he consented to the presi- 
dency of Napoleon Bonaparte, it was not because he de- 
sired or believed that that presidency would be made the 
stepping-stone to an assumption of imperial power. He 
was among the first to denounce the imperialist intrigues, 
and had the courage to stand up, in the midst of groups of 
sneering republican deputies, who declared that the Em- 
pire's re-establishment was an impossibility, and to say 
"The Empire is an established fact ! " From 1863 until 
1870 his voice was always loud in denunciation of the 
usurper, and the man who had villainously broken his 
most sacred promises. 

The contemporaries of M. Thiers have generally sung 
his praises. Even those who have been inimical to him, 
have always felt the subtle influence of the charm with 
which he surrounded himself. Louis Philippe never really 
liked Thiers, and in 1 840, on the day when the latter was 
to be accorded the position of head of the ministry, the 
king said to a friend : ' ' To-morrow I shall sign my humilia- 
tion." Although pretending to bourgeois instincts, the king 
hardly relished the rapid manner in which M. Thiers rose 
out of obscurity to the summit of power. Chateaubriand, 
much as he must have disliked the man who caused the 
arrest of the Duchesse de Berri, wrote of him : "He is the 
only man produced by the July revolution." Bui he liked 



64 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

to rail at him as a bourgeois nevertheless. On one occasion 
he wrote : "I recognize in M. Thiers a supple, prompt, 
fine, malleable mind, possibly heir to the future, compre- 
hending everything, save that grandeur which comes from 
moral order ; without jealousy, littleness, or prejudice ; he 
is extricating himself from the black and profound gulf 
of the mediocrity of the time." Lamartine found Thiers 
highly sympathetic. He said that he admired his " trans- 
cendent common sense." In criticising the " History of 
the Revolution," he said : "Man is in this history, but 
God is not. M. Thiers' history is a landscape without a 
sky." Elsewhere he wrote of Thiers as the " first of just, 
resolute, executive spirits, the most interesting and persua- 
sive of orators, whom one never wearies of hearing, because 
one can see him think through his skin." The delicate- 
minded poet was also fond of relating a story infinitely to 
the credit of M. Thiers. They had been dining together, 
when Thiers was sub-secretary of State under M. Lafitte. 
The conversation at dinner was gay, friendly, and unre- 
strained. Thiers had that day suffered a check in the 
Chamber, but, as Lamartine says, "The man had not lost 
a grain of his confidence, his character surpassed his talent ; 
he felt as if each fall to the earth gave him fresh strength. 
As they were leaving, after dinner, they met in the ante- 
chamber an elderly woman, plainly and almost rudely 
dressed. She was asking for M. Thiers, who, as soon as 
he perceived her, ran to her, threw himself into her arms, 
and caressed her tenderly, then, leading her by both hands 
up to the poet he said, joyously : " Tenez, Lamartine, this 
is my mother." 

The chief cause of occasional rebellion against M. Thiers 



LaUIS ADOLPHE THIERS. 65 

in France has been the summary manner in which he has 
told his countrymen what to do, and the almost contemp- 
tuous way in which he has treated their objections. As he 
has usually been right, his obstinacy has increased with his 
age. It is the fashion to carp at his suggestions, and then 
to carefully follow them. He has been mistaken now and 
then, as in his absurd theory that railroads could not suc- 
ceed in France, and in his evident belief that his country 
had a divinely instituted mission to send military expedi- 
tions wherever and whenever it pleased. When he has had 
a great measure to carry through, such as his plan for for- 
tifying Paris, or his effort at centralization', or his plan 
for founding the liberties of the press, he has carried it 
with a resistless force which is perfectly amazing. He got 
into trouble with Lord Palmerston in 1840, and was forced 
to retire. But his influence, when outside the ministry, 
was very powerful. His means of warfare have always been 
honorable. In none of his campaigns against Guizot, or 
against the second Empire, is there evidence of anything 
low or mean on his part. His political processes have been 
cleanly. He has evidently listened to the voice of his con- 
science, and made common sense a lamp to his feet. He 
despised the plebiscite and other tricks by which Napo- 
leon HI. endeavored to strengthen his tottering throne. He 
understood the weakness of the Empire, and the decadence 
upon which France had entered under it. He was with 
the minority which voted against war with Prussia ; and the 
unreasoning Paris mob therefore broke the windows of his 
house in the Place-St. -Georges, and his constituents asked 
him to resign. He retired to Trouville, and thence gen- 
erously sent the emperor such advice as his patriotism die- 



66 .BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

tated. He objected to the impeachment of Marshal 
LeBoeuf, and after the declaration of the Republic, in Sep- 
tember, 1870, proposed a commission of National Defence, 
which was no sooner established than he set off on a long 
diplomatic journey to London, Vienna, St. Petersburg, 
and Florence, to see what might be done toward allevia- 
ting the ills of France. From Italy he went to Tours, 
where the Provisional Government commissioned him to 
treat with the Germans for an armistice. The suspension of 
hostilities being secured, thanks to the wisdom and modera- 
tion of Thiers, peace soon followed, as we have seen, and 
the veteran statesman once more took the reins of power, 

M. Thiers was implacable when dealing with the sup- 
porters of the fallen Empire. While the Assembly was in 
session at Bordeaux in 1871, the venerable president laid 
the burden of the responsibility for the Franco-Prussian 
war upon the backs of the Bonapartists. "Speak," he 
cried from the tribune to the imperialist deputies, 
"speak of the services rendered to France by the Empire ! 
There are plenty of people here who will instantly find an 
answer to you ! " Shortly after the decision of the Assembly 
to remove to Versailles,. M. Thiers made a vigorous 
speech, in which he entered into a solemn engagement on 
the part of the government to preserve an equal balance be- 
tween the various striving parties. If there was any doubt, 
however, at the time he was chosen chief of executive pow- 
er, as to the sincerity of his belief in the value and neces- 
sity of republican institutions in France, the following 
paragraph from his speech at the time of the compact 
would seem definite enough to convince the most credu- 
lous : — 



LOUIS ADOLPHE THIERS. 6/ 

"Monarchists! Republicans! neither the one nor the 
other of you will be deceived ; we shall occupy ourselves 
exclusively with the reorganization of the country. We 
shall always ask your aid iu this process of reorganization, 
because we know that should we depart from the limits of 
our allotted task, we should divide you, and we should 
ourselves become divided. Under what form shall the 
reorganization take place ? Under the form of the Re- 
public, and in its interest." And he maintained this 
attitude in the most steadfast and heroic manner in the 
face of a formidable and menacing opposition, which 
always sought to compromise him, until the date of 
his final resignation, when he was convinced that, for 
the time, his efforts were unavailing. In the exciting 
and troublous first days of the sessions at Versailles, 
when Paris was in arms, and France was in the most 
agonizing condition, M. Thiers constantly repeated that 
his mission was but to defend order, and to reorganize 
the country ; yet he always maintained that he " had re- 
ceived a Republican State, and that he w-ould stake his 
honor upon the preservation of it." 

His labors, during his presidency, were colossal. He 
began work long before other members of his household 
were astir in the morning, and often wrote and directed, 
with his own hand, thirty or forty private letters before 
breakfast. He kept a watchful eye on the Assembly's 
sessions, and was ready, at a moment's notice, to pounce 
into the tribune as of old, and to deliver long extempore 
speeches. He sometimes won a complete victory over his 
numerous and harassing adversaries, by a mere outburst 
of temper. On one occasion, in May, 1871, the Right 



68 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

having absurdly demanded some useless explanations con-' 
cerning M. Thiers' sentiments with regard to the Com- 
mune, he climbed into the tribune, white with rage, and in 
a broken voice refused to explain. "If I displease you, 
say so ! " he cried, and then heaped upon the Assembly in 
general a storm of reproaches for its mean jealousies, its 
trickeries, and its ingratitude, as manifested toward him. 
The "explanations" were not insisted upon. 

On the 22d of May, 1871, he announced the entry of 
Mac Mahon's troops into Paris. 

His last administration was filled with exciting events, 
and noteworthy triumphs. His great speech, in which he 
gave to Europe a clear and wonderfully vivid account of 
the excellent financial condition of France, was a master- 
piece. His declaration of loyalty to the Republic, at the 
time when the return of the Orleans princes to France was 
under discussion, was frank and thrilling ; it strengthened 
republican sentiment throughout Europe. His conserva- 
tism was constantly shown in projects of law for regula- 
ting the press, and relative to the appointment of officials ; 
it was strong enough to merit praise even from his ene- 
mies. He was ever ready to retire : on the day when, after 
seven months of trial, the Assembly believed him the man 
of all others who merited the dignity of President of the 
Republic, and, on according it to him, stipulated that his 
powers should endure as long as its own, his resignation 
was written and ready to be handed in. He demanded 
absolute confidence ; without it, he refused to proceed a 
step. 

From the 31st of August, 1871, until May 24, 1873, 
M. Thiers was more active than ever before. Early in 



LOUIS ADOLPHE THIERS. 69 

1872 he resigned, because the Assembly was disposed to 
refuse the maintenance of duties on raw material ; but he 
was persuaded to withdraw his resignation. He became 
more and more pronounced in his warfare against Bonapait- 
ist intrigues. While the mighty work of paying the war 
indemnity to Germany was swiftly approaching completion, 
he cheered and encouraged the country by his luminous 
expositions of commercial progress. He was interested in 
everything concerning the army, and, when the Assembly 
hesitated over the proposition to make five years the term 
of service, he menaced the deputies, saying, "Vote the five 
years, or I will leave you to yourselves." He was 
obeyed. 

The numerous speeches in the Assembly and addresses 
to his constituents, in which M. Thiers declared his inten- 
tion of founding a Conservative Republic, and indicated 
that it was daily becoming more and more firmly estab- 
lished, resulted in displeasing the Monarchists — who, 
nevertheless, had no good cause for complaint, since they 
were invariably treated with the utmost consideration. 
When the Monarchists reproached him. as "Provisory," he 
retorted, "Make a definite government, then." When 
they asserted that he had broken the "Compact of Bor- 
deaux," that he had been too frankly republican, he re- 
plied, "I found the Republic made. No one at Bor- 
deaux asked me to establish a monarchy, and I cannot be- 
tray the trust placed in my hands. My conviction is that 
monarchy is impossible, since there are three dynasties for a 
single throne. I am accused of having broken the ' Bor- 
deaux Compact ', but all the parties to it have done the 
same thing." Meantime he urged constitutional reforms. 



70 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

On a later occasion, he said, in an important speech, 
''Gentlemen, I am an old disciple of the Monarchy. I 
am what is called a Monarchist, who practices republican- 
ism for two reasons : because he agreed to do so, and be- 
cause, practically, today, he can do nothing else. That 
is the kind of a Republican that I am. I give myself for 
what I am." On the eve of his final resignation, he said, 
" It is often asserted that the country is not republican. 
Here is the exact truth. I have already stated it ; I re- 
peat and affirm it ; among the upper classes, who are pre- 
occupied with anxieties about order, and who are, perhaps, 
right, there is some apprehension and repugnance ; but 
among the masses, do not deceive yourselves, the Republic 
has an immense majority." 

The-definite resignation of M. Thiers did not occur until 
after marked progress had been made towards the estab- 
lishment of constitutional law, nor until the old statesman 
had received a dispatch announcing the signature of the 
treaty of the evacuation of French soil by the Prussians. 
It came suddenly, however, as the natural result of a co- 
al'tion of Conservative forces against the man who was 
brave enough to accept the situation, and to endeavor to 
act honestly. In one of the most powerful and brilliant 
speeches of his. whole career, M. Thiers reviewed his policy 
— the re-establishment of order, the liberation of territory, 
re-organization of the finances and the army, indignantly 
disposed the charges against him of connivance with the 
Radicals ; and then, finding that he had but a very small 
majority with him, he retired. But the singular combina- 
tion of Orleanists, Legitimists, and Bonapartists, which 
compelled his withdrawal, did not accomplish its aim ; for, 



LOUIS ADOLPHE THIERS. 7I 

on the 25th of February, 1875, it could not but admit 
that the Republic, which it had sought to mortally wound 
on the 24th of May, 1873, ^^'^^ stronger and more firmly 
established than ever before. 

Thiers was but little affected by the intrigues and com- 
promises which resulted in his withdrawal. " What," he 
cried, on one occasion, " if I were reduced simply to re- 
ceive a salary in a hotel, which you have lent me for a few 
days, without having the right to make my opinion heard 
on the important affairs of my country, power under such 
conditions would seem to me a most despicable thing !" 
When the Assembly wished to banish him during debates, 
he overwhelmed the Member of the Commission which 
proposed the project with reproaches. " If," he said, "I 
were sprung from those noble races which have done so 
much for the country, I might stoop down and take the 
role of Constitutional King, which you offer me. But I, 
a small bourgeois, who, by study and labor, have succeeded 
in becoming what I am, I should not know how to ac- 
cept, without real humiliation, and shame, the situation 
which you propose. " In one of his final speeches before 
the Assembly, he closed a review of his acts, as follows : 
'•' No, I do not fear for my memory, because I do not ex- 
pect to appear at the tribunal of parties ; before such a 
court I should be at fault ; but I shall not be abashed be- 
fore history, and I desire to appear at t'/s tribunal." 

M. Thiers, since his resignation, has devoted himself, 
as assiduously as ever, to the cultivation of the arts, of 
which he has always been a generous patron. His collec- 
tion of bronzes, in his superb residence, in the Place-St.- 
Georges, is one of the most complete in Europe. The 



72 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

Commune, although it willingly decreed the razing of 
Thiers's house, religiously respected his art treasures, and, 
with trivial exception, he found them unharmed. It is 
not long since the old gentlemen paid a lengthy visit to 
Italy, and collected many rich and costly souvenirs. In 
society he is charming ; his curious head, in shape some- 
thing like the pear, to which, in political caricature, it is 
always compai-ed, is often seen in the salons of intellectual 
people in Paris ; the small and now somewhat decrepit 
figure is often as nervous and alert as a boy's ; and the 
wrinkled face, with its kindly expression, the forehead with 
its crown of bristling silver hair, are always hailed with 
admiration and respect. Thiers has always been fond of fun 
and practical jokes ; has long been renowned for the superb 
taste with which he entertains company, as well as for the 
austerity of his own personal regimen ; has a wonderfully 
tenacious memory, both for faces and dates ; is predis- 
posed in favor of old families and aristocratic gentlemen, 
and, when a republican president, sent a marquis as minis- 
ter to Berlin, and a duke to London. He has a severe 
and never varying appetite for work, and keeps at it, with 
occasional naps, through the day. He withstood the 
fatigues and the anguish of the numerous interviews with 
the Prussians, while treating for peace, better than younger 
men could have done. Jules Favre has given, in his 
■volume on the "Government of National Defenses, "an in- 
teresting account of the negotiations of the venerable 
statesman with Bismarck. He has drawn a lively picture 
of the interview which he himself had with M. Thiers in a 
ruined and deserted house on the bank of the Seine, near 
the Sevres bridge, on the windy November morning when 



LOUIS ADOLPHE THIERS. 73 

Thiers returned from his interview at Versailles. Even at 
that early period of the siege, Thiers believed that the 
situation of France imposed the necessity of conciliatory 
measures, and he said so frankly. But it was not until 
many months thereafter that he succeeded in making it 
evident to Frenchmen of all classes that concession and 
compromise were the only things which could save the 
countr;^. 

Thiers would doubtless have written more books had he 
been less in active life. He has not even taken the trouble, 
about which many inferior men are so punctilious, to pre- 
serve an account, written by himself, of his various admin- 
istrations. His " History of the French Revolution " and 
"History of the Consulate and the Empire,'' are the only 
extended works which he has published. A treatise on 
" Property " from his pen, is well known in France. His 
public speeches would form a colossal collection of 
volumes ; but he does not seem specially anxious to edit 
them. Little concerned about his record, he lives in 
action ; his conversation sparkles with the fiery spirit of 
his time. When there are not events enough in France to 
occupy his attention, he turns it abroad, and his voice is 
always listened to with respect. His life is a splendid 
example of what industry allied with first-rate talents may 
accomplish. M. Thiers has won many laurels, but none 
more unfading than those which crowned his brow when 
he was President of the young Republic, whose existence 
he so valorously defended against a host of able and deadly 
enemies. 

On the occasion of the celebration of his seventy-eighth 
birthday, M. Thiers was as sprightly as at forty, and seems 



74 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

likely to live many years. He is always surprising his 
friends by venturing into some new field of inquiry, and 
the same restless curiosity and energy which led him to 
make a special study of political economy, and to take 
instructions in artillery practice, when writing his 
" History of the French Revolution," may prompt him to- 
morrow to visit Cochin China, or to sail toward the North 
Pole, note-book in hand, and his kindly features aglow 
with that enthusiasm which no frosts of age can chill. 

M. Thiers made a great speech early in 1870, in the 
Corps Legislatif of the Empire, in favor of a return to 
protection. In this, as in many of his addresses during his 
presidency, his splendid financial abilities and his astonish- 
ing power of condensing, remembering, and arraying facts, 
were shown to marked advantage. 

M. Thiers has for some time been engaged upon a 
philosophical work, but one volume of which is at present 
finished. Those who have been favored with a description 
of its plan say, that it will be the crowning glory of the 
venerable academician's reputation ; and that he will be 
known by it long after his "History of the Revolution," 
and the "Consulate and Empire," and his minor works 
are comparatively forgotten. He latterly takes much more 
interest than in former years in the Academy, of which he 
has been a member since 1834. 



Leon Gambetta. 




HEN the affaire Baudin was first reported in the 
Continental newspapers, Europe felt a thrill 
which wise men accepted as a foreboding of the 
coming revolution in France. It was a time wheii 
men were afraid of each other; Jean fearing lest Jacques 
possibly might be attached to the secret police of the 
Empire, and Jacques dreading denunciation by Jean. 
In those days people looked over theirshoulders timorously 
when anyone spoke ill even of the humblest official of the 
existing Government ; and the men who wrote leading 
articles in prominent newspapers, kept suits of old clothes, 
good to go to prison in, at their offices. 

Yet every man felt that this excess of despotism was 
likely to vanish in an instant ; and when such men as Leon 
Gambetta stood up and spoke in thunder tones against the 
Emperor and his Empire, the impression was confirmed. 
Avant couriers of the army of liberty, these bold men did 
their work as recklessly as well. They did not spare them- 
selves, nor did they ever undertake to conceal their senti- 



76 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

ments. They declared war against Imperialism, and, 
hoisting the flag of the "Irreconcilable" party, they 
carried consternation into the camp of the Bonapartists. 

In 1868, Leon Gambetta was an ambitious and active 
young lawyer, who had made his debut at the Palace of 
Justice in Paris by a remakable defense of several persons 
prosecuted for conspiracy ; and who had subsequently 
pleaded with success in numerous political cases. He 
was a hard student and a faithful follower of the debates 
in the Corps Legislatif. He studied the sessions of that 
body with a care and precision to which he to-day owes 
his admirable parliamentary knowledge, and the ease with 
which he bears himself in the midst of the most acrimo- 
nious debates. He never hesitated to speak his mind fully 
and openly ; the secret employes of the Government 
hated him, because, as he was an advocate, it would have 
been bad policy to arrest him, and because he was contin- 
ually exposing their odious tyrannies. He was noted, 
written about, contemned, but his rooms were not troubled 
by perquisitions, and his shoulder was not tapped by the 
gendarme's hand. Perhaps, had he been persecuted a 
little more severely, his zeal might have been less note- 
worthy ; but. it is hardly probable that he would have 
quailed even under the severest trials. 

When the Imperial Government prosecuted those nu- 
merous journals in Paris whose editors had opened subscrip- 
tion-lists for the purpose of defraying the expenses of a 
monument to Baudin, one of the victims of the coup d'etat 
by which Napoleon Third came into power, Gambetta was 
at once engaged to defend the Reveil. The people of Paris, 
on All Saints' Day, had covered the tomb of Baudin, in 



- LEON GAMBETTA. yj 

Montmartre Cemetery, with* flowers and wreaths of 
immortelles ; and had otherwise silently protested against 
the continuance of a regime disgraced by such memories as 
that of Baudin's fate. Nothing could have been more fatal 
to the Empire than the perpetuation of the feeling which 
took such a stern and unrelenting expression among the 
common people, that it might at any time break into open 
revolt. So the hands of the Imperial censors were placed 
on the pens of the editors, and legal processes and sum- 
mary im^prisonments were the order of the day. 

It was then that Gambetta raised his voice against the 
Empire, and made a speech which for beauty, vivacity, rich- 
ness of invective, and bitterness of denunciation, is almost 
without a parallel in the French language. It was like a 
thunderbolt on the Imperial head. The young advocate 
stood up one dull December afternoon, in a littte court 
of Correctional Police in Paris, and for several hours spoke 
with an energy and an inspiration which so overawed the 
tribunal that he was troubled with no interruptions. People 
sat spell-bound listening to the rankest and boldest treason, 
which, if said in an ordinary way on the highway by a com- 
monplace man, would have consigned him to prison in 
twenty minutes. The rumor ran throughout the city that 
a great and rebellious speech was in progress ; and prudent 
tradesmen got their shutters out of the cellar, and called 
their children home from school, fearing there might be 
riots in the streets. The police took more than usual 
precautions, and the cavalry was held in readiness to 
disperse any ominous-looking assemblages at corners. 

By the time that Gambetta had reached that portion of 
his speech where he uttered these famous words : " Hence- 



78 - BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

forth, we shall have a civic fete to celebrate in the name of 
our martyrs, and it will be the Second of December," the 
whole city was in a ferment. Gambetta was next morning 
the best-known man in France. The news of his daring 
speech crept mysteriously from town to town, despite the 
careful manner in which the Government watched the 
telegraph : and the whole address was in the hands of 
French electors in all sections of the country, within a 
week. 

Gambetta was then a carelessly-dressed, nervous-looking 
young lawyer, whose olive complexion and intense man- 
ners betrayed his Italian descent. He was born in Cahors, 
on the 20th of April, 1838, of French parents, but the 
family came originally from Italy. His parents placed him, 
when quite small, in the care of some people whom he 
did -not like, whereupon he wrote to his father, that if he 
did not take him back to his home at once he would put 
out one of his eyes. No attention was paid to this child- 
ish threat ; but Gambetta kept his word, and tore out an 
eye. But little else is known of his^ childhood. As a 
young man in Paris he was a hard worker, and a good 
companion ; and was admitted to the bar in that city in 
1859. 

His next important movement, after the speech in the 
Baudin affair, was his visit to Toulouse, where he went to 
defend a republican journal, called "The Emancipation." 
On this occasion he was more than ever frank in his decla- 
ration of war against the Empire. The people accepted 
him as their champion. The spring of 1869, with its 
alarms, its riots, its police measures, its cavalry patrols, and 
its hints- at compromise on the part of the Imperial faction, 



- LEON GAMBETTA. 79 

arrived. Gambetta became the candidate of the artisans 
of Belleville, and of the excitable populace of Marseilles, 
He went through a terrible electoral campaign, doing the 
work of ten men, and as soon as he had won, was pros- 
trated with a painful throat disease. In Belleville he 
always presented himself as the candidate of the " irrecon- 
cilable opposition," and as such obtained 35,417 votes in 
that department, and 42,865 at Marseilles. 

Although he went into the Corps Legislatif as the cen- 
tral figure in a group of men who had sworn never to ac- 
cept the Empire or to forgive the Emperor for his treason, 
Gambetta did not find it necessary to indulge in revolu- 
tionary language while in the tribune. Whenever the 
truth demanded that he should call the Imperialists bad 
names, he did it boldly ; but he aimed mainly to explain 
the theories of his party, and to help the people forward to 
something like real progress in constitutional government. 
His first great speech as a legislator was that in which he 
clearly pointed out the follies, foibles, and knaveries of 
the pUliscite, the pet instrument of the Bonapartists for 
securing their ends. This powerful speech was character- 
ized by an extreme moderation of language, by great pre- 
cision of ideas, and made a profound impression in all 
the large cities, where the plebiscite was ignominiously re- 
jected. It has been said that so great are Gambetta's 
powers of fascination, that when he was making this 
speech on the plebiscite, even the Imperialists listened with- 
out disturbing him at all, and that some of them could 
not refrain from expressing their admiration. There were 
moments when his well-known frankness suddenly cleared 
up a difficult situation, throwing light on the attitude of 



8o ■ BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

all parties. On one occasion he, cried out to Ollivier, 
who had been tediously explaining some of the promised 
Imperial reforms : " We accept you and your Constitu- 
tionalism as a bridge to the Republic ; that's all." Such 
flights of confidence always did good, rather than harm. 

It was natural enough that Gambetta should have been 
prominent in the terrible days which preceded the declara- 
tion of war against Prussia, and that still more sombre 
period immediately following Sedan. He was not one of 
those inclined to purchase peace at any price ; he had 
neither the wisdom and the general knowledge of Thiers, 
nor the mad and unfounded recklessness of the Imperial- 
ists. But he had an abounding belief in the genius of his 
countrymen. He fancied that, although they were to be 
brought face to face with a redoubtable enemy, they would 
find their ancient military prestige and their traditional 
ela7t the moment they were placed in a critical situation. 
His brain and heart had been severely over-tasked in the 
struggles in which he had been engaged concerning the 
internal policy of the country ; such speeches as those 
which he made protesting against the plebiscite, and against 
the arrest of Henri Rochefort, demanded excessive nervous 
strain ; and he had neither all his 'prudence nor his sang 
froid at command when the furious majority demanded 
the declaration of war against Prussia. He made little 
effort to prevent that declaration ; but when he saw, to his 
overwhelming surprise, that France had been led into a 
snare, that the Empire was powerless to protect the coun- 
try which it had so long governed, he turned manfully to 
do all that he could to save his native land. He welcomed 
the Revolution ; he hailed it joyously as the dawn of a new 



- LEON GAMBETTA. 8 I 

and better era. But, with his eyes fixed on the coming 
era of constitutional government, he readily recognized . 
the necessity of honest and regular action ; and he was 
one of the first to demand that every measure for over- 
turning the existing Government, and for proclaiming the 
downfall of the Imperial dynasty, should have a legal 
character. He failed in his endeavors to accomplish this. 
On the 4th of September, 1870, he found the Corps Legis- 
latif invaded by the populace, and saw himself proclaimed 
one of the prominent members of the Government of Na- 
tional Defense. Then he took up his burden, and the 
world knows how nobly and faithfully he bore it. 

Gambetta's colleagues, certain of his popularity, and of 
the plenitude of his strength, called him to the Ministry of 
the Interior. Favre had unlimited confidence in him ; 
knew him for a skillful and acute politician, and a bold 
and brave man. Gambetta remained in Paris at his post 
for some time after the Prussians had surrounded the city 
with their investment lines. But he was continually cry- 
ing out against the inaction which seemed one of the 
inevitable results of the fatal chain of disasters wound 
about France. He burned to be in the thick of the fray, 
and the other members of the Government, after much 
deliberation, consented to attach him to the delegation in 
the provinces. A decree announcing this decision was 
passed on the 7th of October. Gambetta at once left 
Paris by balloon, and after numerous adventures, succeeded 
in reaching Tours, where he was_ forthwith invested with 
the portfolios of the Ministers of War and the Interior. 

Then began his astonishing career, during which, by the 
magic of his eloquence and the might of his unfaltering- 



82 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

courage, he concluded loans, named generals, raised 
armies, quelled dissensions, dispelled jealousies, and 
combined in his own person the executive faculties of half 
a hundred officers. Had he known how to handle the 
sword, France might have been saved. His voice was 
heard everywhere in the southern provinces, like a clarion, 
never sounding retreat, but always inviting to the advance. 
He wrote stinging and inspiring despatches to the members 
of the Government in Paris, and kept them inflamed with 
hope long after all chance of victory had vanished. When 
Thiers was making his first overtures for peace and an 
armistice, Gambetta continually preached an indefinite pro- 
longation of the war. In a letter of November 4, 1870, 
written to M. Favre, at Paris, he condemned all efforts in 
the interests of peace ; denounced a general election at 
that time as likely to endanger the chances of the Republic; 
and offered his resignation as minister, to take effect on 
the day that armistice and elections should be decided upon. 
"Daring the whole siege," writes Jules Favre, " M. 
Gambetta's views and advice were uniforrhly the same. He 
believed sincerely in the success of his own endeavors, and 
always considered any efforts at negotiation as a certain 
cause of feebleness. " Gambetta believed that the Repub- 
lic would be founded definitely and firmly if a signal vic- 
tory were gained over the Prussians ; and he fondly fancied 
that time and a "little more experience" would make 
solid troops out of the raw peasants who flocked around 
him and enthusiastically listened to his magnetic words. 
Even the fall of Metz did not shake his courage. " Never," 
he wrote as soon as he had heard the sad news, "was the 
situation of France graver ; never was the resolution to 



' LEON GAMBETTA. 83 

fight to the death more clearly manifest." He issued a 
flaming proclamation to the armies in the provinces, in 
which document he branded Bazaine as a traitor, and made 
no small amount of political capital against the Bonapart- 
ists. 

While the bloody battles around Orleans were in progress, 
Gambetta was almost constantly in the field. He urged 
resistance to the uttermost, and in December succeeded in 
rallying the armies to defend Orleans, even after the gene- 
ral in command had decided that retreat was necessary. 
On the 4th of December Gambetta set out for Orleans 
in a special train, to be present at the battle, and narrowly 
escaped capture by the Prussians. The railway was occu- 
pied, at a point near the village of La Chapelle, by a corps 
of Prussian cavalry, who had built barricades across the 
track ; the engineer was but a short distance from this 
ambuscade when he discovered it. Gambetta was com- 
pelled to take to the highway, and although near enough 
to hear the cannonading, he could not reach Orleans. He 
went back to Blois, his heart filled with anguish, and there, 
late in the evening, he received a dispatch announcing that 
the French had been compelled to evacuate Orleans. On 
the nth of December he wrote to Favre that the dele- 
gation in the provinces had retreated to Bordeaux, and that 
he himself was endeavoring to put life into Bourbaki and 
his army. 

The result of Gambetta's labors is well known. He 
continued struggling until he received the news of the ar- 
mistice concluded by the Government in Paris. He pro- 
tested, but submitted to a temporary cessation of hostili- 
ties, advising a desperate resistance when they should be 



84 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

resumed. As soon as the Paris members of the Govern- 
ment annulled that decree of the Provincial delegation 
which excluded from eligibility to the National Assembly 
all the old functionaries and official candidates of the Em- 
pire, Gambetta resigned, and retired to private life. 

In one of the last of the series of remarkable circulars 
which he addressed to Favre, during the siege, Gambetta 
thus speaks of the political situation, and shows that he 
was always more interested in the foundation of the Re- 
public than in any scheme for personal aggrandizement, or 
desire for a mere military triumph : 

" France is attaching herself more and more to a repub- 
lican regime. The masses, even in the back country, 
understand, under the pressure of present events, that it is 
those republicans, calumniated, persecuted, and defamed 
with such art for three generations, who are now the true 
patriots, the real defenders of the nation and of the rights 
of man and citizen. There is something more than esteem 
for them in this feeling : there is gratitude. Let us drive 
out the stranger, as we can and as we ought, and the Re- 
public is definitely established in France." 

Gambetta wrote a great letter to Favre on the last day 
of that dread December of 1870, when the latter was medi- 
tating a journey to London to solicit European interven- 
tion ; but unfortunately the circular, filled with magnetic- 
words of cheer, did not reach its destination until the 9th 
of January of the new year. It was resonant of defiance 
to Prussia ; it had the genuine courage of the " forlorn 
hope" in it. " Go out," he wrote to Favre, " to London, 
to the conference. We will yet gather the fruits of our 
patriotism, and whatever may be the extent of our material 



' LEON GAMBETTA. 8$ 

losses, we shall have assured for ever the grandeur and in- 
dependence of France, under the segis of the Republic ! 
Go then, committing to the republican party the keeping 
and the destinies of the defense ; go out to confer with Eu- 
rope and to convince it of the justice of our cause : go out, 
above all, to aid us, in case that Europe remains deaf to 
your words, to bear forward to the very end the flag of re- 
sistance to a war made quite as much upon our national 
territory as against the sacred principles of JLa Revolu- 
tion ! '' 

"Who," says Jules Favre, in commenting upon this cir- 
cular, " in reading these ardent lines, can doubt the patri- 
otic faith of him who traced them ? Who can seriously 
accuse him of having dreamed of dictatorship, when he 
begged me to come to him and to partake of his power ? 
I admit that he may be reproached for his passionate en- 
thusiasm for the Republic, which, in his thought, too easily 
dominated that of country ; I even admit that one must al- 
most tremble before his illusions, which permitted him to 
believe that France could support a war of extermination, 
and, that Prussia must inevitably perish in it ; but that 
which every one must perforce recognize, is that he gave all 
that he had of feverish and exalted sentiment to the cause 
of deliverance ; and it is really as puerile as unjust to sup- 
-pose that in presence of the supreme perils and the despe- 
rate chances which he defied with such reckless temerity, he 
should have lowered his spirit to the ridiculous conception 
of a supreme authority which could only have conducted 
him to crucifixion." 

In February, 1871, when the National Assembly was 
summoned to Bordeaux, whither some months before, as 



86 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

we have already seen, the provincial delegation had been 
compelled to retreat before the Prussian advance, Gambetta 
found himself elected deputy from ten departments. He 
chose to represent the Lower Rhine ; and worked hard in 
the committee-rooms of the Assembly against the adoption 
of the preliminaries of peace with Prussia. His hot south- 
ern blood rebelled against the idea of surrender, and he 
found inspiration and confirmation of his desires and im- 
pressions among the chivalrous populations in and around 
Bordeaux. When the vote for peace was concluded, and 
Alsace and Lorraine were delivered over to their enemies, 
Gambetta joined with his colleagues representing the con- 
quered provinces, and haughtily withdrew from an assem- 
bly with which they had no sympathy. Gambetta retired 
to Saint Sebastien in Spain, where he remained, reposing 
from the terrible fatigues which he had undergone, until 
the new elections in July, 1871, once more called him 
to the Assembly. 

During the four years which have elapsed since that time, 
Leon Gambetta certainly has been one of the prominent 
leaders of the republican party in France. Year by year 
he has increased in moderation : the Gambetta of 1870, 
fresh from the campaigns against Napoleon HL and 
Prussia, would hardly be recognized in the politician who 
preached moderation a few months since at Belleville. He 
had no voice in the Commune, and said but little against 
it ; he understood the causes of that great and bloody in- 
surrection, and lamented both those causes and their re- 
sults. Although he has always been radical, in the better 
sense of the term, and is so to-day, as compared with the 
most conservative among the republicans, he has never seen 



' LEON GAMBETTA. 8/ 

fit to separate himself, in any decisive manner, from the Left 
in the Assembly, save on one occasion, when he sustained 
the candidacy of M. Barodet against that of M. Charles De 
Remusat, although Grevy and many other uncompromis- 
ing republicans supported the latter, 

Gambetta's eloquence has been often but never adequate- 
ly described. There is a wild passion in the man which is 
absolutely indescribable ; his character is like the ocean, 
whose might one does not stop to consider when it is tran- 
quil, but which becomes imposing and awful in storm. 
This orator is never cold and stately ; his hollow and re- 
sounding voice is like that of some furious warning prophet 
of doom. His fiery sentences follow one another with such 
rapidity that there is little chance for interruption. When 
some noisy member of the Right sneers aloud, or flings a 
bitter taunt at the orator, a startling and crushing rejoinder 
is wedged into the address ; and while Gambetta is whirled 
along on the impetuous current of his speech, the inter- 
rupter sits dazed and ashamed in silence. Gambetta 
likes debate ; he revels in the excitement of sessions where 
angry and passionate discussions occur between the parties; 
he interrupts o^ten, although he contrives not to be inter- 
rupted. Sometimes his intense face will spring out of the 
mass of listeners on the Left, his arm will be outstretched, 
and he will cry defiant contradiction, or hurl the lie in the 
teeth of a Bonapartist or Orleanist deputy. When he 
mounts to the tribune, there is much whispering, there are 
many half-suppressed buzzes of admiration ; the ladies 
would rather hear him in one of his impatient moods than 
to see the best comedy at the Fran9ais ; the priests frown 
on, but admire him ; the bourgeois sits, half expecting to 



88 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

see tumbrils, with victims for a new guillotine, coming 
round the corner when he goes into the street. Now and 
then judicious members of the Left catch Gambetta by his 
coat tails, and attempt to hold him back, when he rushes at 
the tribune, desperately spurred on, by his eccentric will, . 
to get at and annihilate his enemies. But all attempts of 
that nature are vain, he will not be.ir checking ; his heart 
would burst if he could not pour out his thought like a 
stream of molten lava from his volcanic brain. When in- 
spired with some idea which has no taint of battle or vin- 
dictiveness upon it, his language is rich and sensuous ; all 
the colors of the southern lands whence he came seem 
blended in it ; all the heats, the sudden showers, the light- 
nings, and the perfumes of the beautiful Midi appear to 
play through his phrases. Many of his speeches are filled 
with delicious imagery, worthy a poet's fancy : he uncon- 
sciously adorns the hardest and severest political facts with 
the vines and roses of the south ; he instinctively gives a 
graceful turn to the announcement of the most prosaic 
matter. There is nothing commonplace in him ; he al- 
ways startles you with the unexpected ; there is an infinity 
of gesture, of accent, of expression ; force and vigor mani- 
fest in a hundred ways ; unutterable things looked and 
acted ; great reserved force behind all. 

Murray has given us an instance of the power of Gambet- 
ta's eloquence, in the following words : 

" The lustre of the Cafe Procope has waned during the 
present cenury, but five years ago any stranger entering it 
of an evening might have seen there a young man who is, 
perhaps, destined to set a deep mark upon history. He 
was an almost briefless barrister then, a dark Italian-blooded 



' LEON GAMBETTA. 89 

young Frenchman, blind with one eye, not over-well 
dressed, but with a voice as sounding as brass. It was the 
magic of the man, this voice. When silent he looked in- 
significant enough, but once he began to speak, the rather 
Bohemian crew of friends around him awoke to admiration. 
The desultory customers scattered about the other tables 
would prick up their ears, and the landlord would hurry 
about in a scared fashion, to beg the impetuous orator to 
speak lower — because — and here a whisper. But he Avith 
the ringing voice would shrug his shoulders at the ' be- 
cause,' even when there was M. Pietri's name tacked on to 
it. He held the evening newspaper in his hands, with the 
report of a speech delivered by some one of that twenty- 
three, say Jules Favre or Ernest Picard, who breasted in 
the Corps Legislatif the mob ofM. Rouher's blatant hench- 
men, and until the speech had been read through from 
end to end, with sonorous bravos at the telling points, 
there was no stopping him with dread of eavesdroppers. 
Then, when the paper was laid, down, more drinking of 
beer would ensue than perhaps the matter strictly required, 
and the young barrister would flash out into blazing com- 
ments on what he had read, adding what he would do and 
say if the chance were afforded him. Nor did his Bohe- 
mian friends smile at this. Each man among them felt 
that limitless confidence which impecuniosity begets, and 
they were also firmly persuaded that if their companion 
could only find the opportunity he would soon set men's 
tongues rattling about him. Their companion did find 
the opportunity : and next day the name of Gambetta was 
famous from one end of France to the other." 

Camille Pelletan, an impartial critic, has given in the 



QO BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

following paragraphs some idea of Gambetta as an orator 
in the National Assembly, when he was exposing the con- 
duct of the administration with regard to the control of 
the press : 

" Imagine seven hundred passionate deputies listening 
to this crushing revelation ; a handful of fifty, still faithful 
to the ministry, who had scented the danger from the very 
first, and who interrupt, cry, deny the evidence, make an 
uproar in every conceivable manner ; three hundred re- 
publicans, indignant and triumphant, saluting the most 
cynical passages of the speech with formidable hurrahs ; 
the mass of the Right and Center Right taken completely 
by storm, stupefied and confounded, irritated at its own 
confusion ; in vain kicking against the pricks ; all this 
crowd surprised, tempestuous, undecided, bursting into 
fury, then relapsing into calm ; given to colloquies, fluc- 
tuations, and incertitude. 

'' Gambetta was astonishing in the midst of the tumult. 

" He spread himself out, leaning on the tribune ; read- 
ing and battling, with a retort for every aggression, mak- 
ing room amid the uproar for the redoubtable document, 
by his speech, as by a rapier; detailing, commenting upon 
each phrase, each word, with his hollow yet sonorous 
voice, and his grand and powerful gestures, which knew 
well how to give such terrific explosion to anger, and 
such comic force to irony ! He went on in disorder, his 
hair streaming over his. brow, shaking his head, and 
throwing taunts at his interrupters, distributing sledge- 
hammer blows, sowing apostrophes and sarcasms broad- 
cast, laying stress upon and giving tenfold importance to 
each word of the shameful secret document." 



LEON GAMBETTA. 9I 

Another description of one of Gambetta's wonderful 
improvised speeches, where his words fairly burn with gen- 
ius, is worth giving. It pictures the orator combating 
certain restrictions with regard to electoral law : 

"Never has the instant glance, the inspiration of the 
moment, the genius of the impromptu, been carried so 
far before. Gambetta has his reason, his passion, his gay- 
ety, all upon his lips at once. He is in good humor ; he 
overflows with sparkling nonchalance ; his force, his joy, 
his victory sparkle resplendent round about him ; sure of 
himself, he goes confidently forward, superb, full of life, 
laughing, triumphant before the eyes of all. He is at his 
ease, he feels his force, he enjoys the blows he gives, he 
abandons himself to the influences of the moment ; one 
might almost imagine him overcome with his own eifusive 
eloquence. He is familiar, jovial, full of good fellowship. 
Then, suddenly, changing his tactics, he becomes more 
contained, logical, and pushes a faultless, dialectic straight 
against his adversary ; then, with sudden bound, he at- 
tains the highest and most poignant notes of passionate 
declamation ; gathers together his oratorical thunders, 
with an imperious frown, and startles the whole Assembly 
with their loud resounding peals." 

The same writer well says of Gambetta's spoken thought: 
" These living marvels of the improvised word do not ex- 
ist in their entirety save at the moment of their utterance. 
They fade the instant that they are transcribed ; a report 
gives only their dead form." 

Gambetta is never more outspoken or more eloquent, 
than when dealing with the Bonapartists. For them he 
has no pity ; nor does he choose his words in speaking of 



92 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

them. In June, 1874, replying to Rouher, who had 
hoped to divert the attention of the Assembly from Bona- 
partist intrigues by falling upon and vilifying Gambetta, 
that fiery orator sprang into the tribune, and speedily de- 
molished his assailant, with a few biting sentences. On 
this occasion, too, Gambetta's tongue ran away with his 
prudence, and he denounced the Imperialists as" wretches." 
This he did with thunderous voice, and sweeping gesture, 
and refused to retract it when the whole Assembly, under 
the influence of rage and excitement, was transformed into 
something very like Bedlam. The president, at the end of 
half an hour's tumult, requested Gambetta to explain him- 
self concerning the "outrage" which he had addressed to 
Monsieur Rouher. 

"It is certain that the word which I have just pro- 
nounced," answered Gambetta, "is more than an outrage ; 
it is a brand ; and I maintain it." 

The president did not dare to order a vote of censure on 
Gambetta's conduct, for Gambetta's partisans at that mo- 
ment were in the majority. The "ex-Dictator," as he is 
sometimes called, went majestically down from the tribune, 
passing serenely through a crowd of Bonapartists, each 
of whom was anxious for vengeance. As Gambetta en- 
tered the railway station at Versailles, that evening, on his 
way home to Paris, a Corsican who had once been an offi- 
cer in the Imperial Guards under the Second Empire, 
threw himself upon him, crying out, 

' ' You have called the Bonapartists wretches ! Well ! I 
am a Bonapartist !" 

He endeavored to strike Gambetta, but the orator was 
d-efended by his friend Guyot Montpayeroux, who accom- 



■ LEON GAMBETTA. 93 

panied him, and the ambitious Corsican was given into the 
hands of the police, who, however, allowed him to escape. 

The next day the principal hall of the Sainte-Lazare rail- 
way station in Paris, through which the deputies going to 
Versailles are obliged to pass, Avas filled with policemen, 
who seemed to be, strangely enough, more in sympathy 
with the Bonapartists than the Republicans. Whenever 
the latter made any aggressive remarks, they were at once 
arrested and locked up ; while the police agents doffed 
their hats as Rouher went by to the train. As Gambetta 
entered the station, a second attempt to attack him was 
made ; a young man rushed at him, but the police did 
not arrest the would-be assassin. In the evening Gam- 
betta was a third time assailed, and received a heavy blow 
on the forehead from a cane in the hand of some enthusi- 
astic friend of the Empire, in the crowd at the Versailles 
station. None of these attacks disturbed the composure 
of the man who had dared to brand the Bonapartists. 

It was in June, 1874, that Gambetta applied his brand 
to the august brow of M. Rouher. In July, 1875, he felt 
called upon to use strong language once more. At that 
time, there had been some important disclosures of Bona- 
partist intrigue, and it had. been shown beyond the shadow 
of a doubt, that the ministry had not performed its duty 
by crushing the Imperial conspiracy in the bud. Gam- 
betta's rage knew no bounds. He was splendid and colos- 
sal in his indignation. He was also somewhat injudicious, 
but he spoke without disguising his thought, and accused 
M. Buffet, the then Minister of the Interior, of apologizing 
for the Bonapartists. He created a storm quite as violent 
as that which he had provoked thirteen months before ; 



94 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

for he characterized the utterances of the Bonapartist depu- 
ties as filled with " impudent audacity." 

The President of the Assembly requested him to with- 
draw that expression. 

' ' That expression means, " said Gambetta, ' '• that all those 
who have taken oaths and afterwards violated them, that 
those who have lied to France with regard to Rome, to 
Mexico, to Sadowa, who have lied about everything, are 
shamelessly audacious creatures when they talk of political 
probity. " 

The president again requested Gambetta to withdraw 
the expression. 

"It exists in the language," coolly replied the orator, 
"and there are people who merit it. " 

Whereupon Gambetta was called to order. But he did 
not leave the tribune until, in the name of the republican 
party of France, he had warned the lukewarm ministry not 
to rely on the moderation of the Republic, unless it ful- 
filled its duty by protecting the new Constitution sacredly, 
and punishing all Royalist and Imperialist conspirators. 
In this final half-threatening speech, which had much 
weight, because Gambetta had for some time previous been 
exceedingly moderate, and had counseled patience and 
forbearance, even to the restless populations of Belleville 
and other popular quarters, the orator was almost sublime. 
In dignity, in beauty of expression, in might he has no 
rivals in the Assembly on such occasions as these. 

One day shortly before the famous 25th of February, 
when the young Constitution of the Republic was in 
imminent danger, Gambetta gave another astonishing 
proof of his powers. He fairly threw himself into the 



LEON GAMBETTA. 95 

tiibune ; his haste was almost grotesque ; his hands trem- 
bled, his lips quivered with the indignation which was the 
vital spring of his action. He concentrated the attention 
of the deputies, wearied with a long session ; he held them 
all spellbound ; he was at that moment an orator in every 
sense of the word. 

"Because," says an impartial French critic, "beside those 
great men — his equals — each of whom one may perhaps 
prefer to him, according to one's habits of thought — if one 
considers eloquence in its proper and traditional type ; if 
one finds it in the loud resounding of thought expressed in 
the sudden inspirations of ihe moment ; in that imperious 
decision which gives to discourse the value and force 
of action ; in that consuming and totally exceptional 
passion, wJiich frees itself from the crowd that it may com- 
municate to it its magic contagion ; in the gallop of words, 
directed by the skillful hand of a politician ; in this great 
movement, by which doctrines, arguments, the tactics of the 
tiibune, all animated, uplifted, borne onward in a large 
and rapid current, envelop and bear along the crowd with 
them — if this be eloquence in its proper sense, in its most 
characteristic type — then M. Gambetta is at this moment, 
the orator par excelhnce. He is such by nature, by tem- 
perament, almost in spite of himself; he is an orator 
even when he has the pen in hand. He was born to 
press with his nervous heel the pedestal of the legislative 
tribune." 

Gambetta has received many such handsome eulogies 
from generous contemporaries : but his enemies and his 
hostile critics outnumber his friends. No man has more 
jealous and v'ndictive foes hidden in the shade of their 



96 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

own obscurity, ready to strike him with the stiletto of 
slander. These creatures like to insinuate that he was 
corrupt during the last war. They laugh maliciously when 
told that he lives in the simplest style, and insist that he 
does it for political effect. They talk mysteriously of his 
hidden wealth, and eagerly seize upon anything which 
proves that he blundered during that marvelous campaign, 
when he performed unaided the duties of Minister of War, 
of the Interior, and of Finance ; when for four months he 
was practically dictator for all France outside Paris, and 
when he labored with gigantic strength and indomitable 
patience. 

Gambetta was frowned upon by Guizot, who said that 
he had heard that the young man frequented wine-shops. 
It was for a long time the custom in fastidious French 
society to decry the young republican, and to speak 
scornfully of his habits and associates. But no one paid 
less attention than he to the thousand scandals circulated 
concerning him. He is a great deal out of doors, and 
democratic to the last degree in his habits and manners ; 
and is usually surrounded by troops of friends, who will 
fight for him whenever it becomes necessary. He has a 
supreme contempt for those troublesome people who, like 
the Cassaignac, and other parasites of the Bonaparte 
dynasty, are continually sending him challenges, or threat- 
ening his life, or warning him to desist from his outspoken 
ways. Not long ago, the elder Cassaignac saw fit to 
challenge Gambetta to a mortal combat, but was put 
aside so effectually that he lost his temper and threat- 
ened to kick the -orator whenever he should meet him 
in public. Gambetta received this warlike announce- 



LEON GAMBETTA. 97 

ment with serene composure, and has not yet been 
kicked. 

No man grows more steadily and rapidly in public 
estimation than Gambetta. His enemies hoped that he 
would ruin himself by excess of radicalism ; but, whatever 
may have been the effect of such a speech as he made at 
Grenoble, when he hinted at the great changes which 
society is necessarily undergoing in France, they have been 
more than counterbalanced by the extreme moderation 
which he has many times since shown. Gambetta is fast 
ripening into a statesman ; he can certainly move the 
masses as no other living Frenchman can ; and some day 
the man who has branded the Empire, who has been presi- 
dent of the Republican Union in the Assembly, may be 
chosen president of the Republic which he has so largely 
aided in establishing upon a solid basis of constitutional 
law. 



Jules Simon. 




ULES SIMON is both honest and great. A fine 
orator, a shrewd and cautious politician, a patriot 
of noblest type, a philosopher of no mean order, 
and a careful student of social science, he is one of the 
foremost figures of his time. He struggled up from the 
ranks of the masses ; his origin was humble, and his youth 
was a perpetual battle for bread. He has always been a 
good fighter in the cause of truth, and, consequently, has 
many hundreds of enemies. The Church has exhausted its 
thunders of invective against him in vain; he has never 
swerved an inch from his course for either denun- 
ciation or intrigue. The second Empire could neither 
frighten nor tempt him ; he looked upon it with unutter- 
able scorn, and refused the honors and places which its 
menials ofi'ered him. His hands are clean, and his heart 
is pure. He has lived to see some of his most precious 
schemes for the education of the people thwarted by the 
manoeuvers and false representations of a jealous clergy ; 
but he has begun the rebuilding with that sublime faith in 



JULES SIMON. 99 

the final triumph of his cause \vhich has characterized all 
his efforts. The sweetness and grace of his nature do not 
seem to have been affected by the harsh conflicts in which 
he has been engaged so often and so long. The steadiness 
and concentration of his aim prevent him from indulging 
in the nervous and undignified paroxysms of recrimination 
which disfigure the oratorical efforts of some of his adver- 
saries. He is never ill at ease, not even when a hundred 
hostile batteries are playing upon the camp of which he is 
often the only defender. No hubbub disconcerts, no angry 
storm of reproaches and sneers alarms him. The natural 
dignity of the man asserts itself above the clamor and un- 
rest cf the lesser men who combat his ideas. Although he 
grows impassioned when reciting the woes and wrongs of 
the working classes, he is rarely tenjpestuous or spasmodic. 
Yet he is wonderfully effective. Here is a French analysis 
of his eloquence : 

"The tribune is for M. Simon a veritable stage, which 
he fills entirely with his oratorical action. He turns 
about ; he walks to and fro ; he poses with sovereign ease 
and familiarity, agitated by the genius of his mobile and 
multiform eloquence, and as if he wished more effectively 
to pour out upon each group of the Assembly the words 
specially destined for that section. Every thing about the 
man speaks ; the features, whose hasty play runs with mar- 
velous agility through the whole gamut of the passions ; the 
arms and the body, whose studied gestures transcribe and 
support the thought ; the hands, above all, in turn, ner- 
vous, insinuating, imperious, demonstrative, imitating, 
caressing ; loquacissimce manus. Nature has given M. 
Simon only a meager and suppressed voice ; but he knows 



100 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

SO well how to manage it, to soften, to modulate it, that 
this imperfect voice has become for him an instrument of 
extraordinary delicacy and precision, and that he draws 
from it just the effect which one would think it most likely 
to refuse, — that of seriousness ! " 

M, Simon's enemies would say quite as much as this of 
him, and, indeed, they do praise him freely, although they 
speak of him as calculating, and deny that his eloquence 
is spontaneous. Even a friend has spoken of him as fol- 
lows : 

" One should see him bringing into play at his will all 
these powers ; the oratorical movement, with its powerful 
impulse, but regulated according to the demand of the 
moment ;• emotion and almost tears, but in doses accord- 
ing to a well-established formula ; raillery, always measur- 
ing its bite, and dissimulating its smile beneath an im- 
perturbable gravity ; a rare lucidity, but distributed by cal- 
culation, and concentrated only on those points which 
do not gain by being left in shade ; passion, indignation, 
violent anger, but all well-tamed, and, like domestic 
lions, growling or growing appeased at the master's 
order. One should see him playing on all these instru- 
ments like a consumm,ate virtuoso ; proud, imperious 
when it is necessa,ry, but supple from preference, and mar- 
velous in turning, in evading difficulties, in diverting 
attention, and in making delicate demonstrations. One 
should see him with his watchful eyes always spying out 
every corner, even durtng his warmest oratorical outbursts 
— pricking up his ears, carefully noting the assemblage, 
catching on the fly, even guessing at every sensation, from 
signs imperceptible to others, which he perceives ; always 



JULES SIIHON. lOI 

knowing, each time that he makes a special appeal to his 
audience, what response the crowd will give out ; and so 
surprising in his analytic glance and his presence of mind, 
that, when a lapsus escapes him, one feels like swearing that 
even the lapsus was arranged beforehand. " 

Jules Simon has given many noticeable addresses before 
the legislative assemblies of France ; but his qualities 
never appeared to better advantage than in the mighty 
effort which he made against the " Septennate," when that 
question was under discussion at Versailles. On that oc- 
casion, as a noted critic said of him, "he, the most as- 
tonishing of temperate orators, managed to produce all 
the effects of a speaker of vehement eloquence." He is 
always listened to with profound respect, partly because it 
is as good as a play to watch him, and partly because his 
air of intense conviction challenges close attention. In 
his Septeniiate speech he reviewed the evils of a personal 
government, and condemned those feeble and wavering 
apostles of the old regime who could not see that France 
had gained rather than lost by taking the power into her 
own hands. He laid aside his arts as he went on 
and entered upon a long and splendid defense of moder- 
ate republican principles. In this defense there was no 
violence of language ; yet when it was over, every member 
of the Right felt as sore as if he had been beaten and 
bruised. "An irresistible orattDrical current," said a wri- 
ter who analyzed the speech on the following day, "trav- 
ersed the discourse from one end to the other ; but one 
felt it more than <xv& saw it." 

Some one has said of Jules Simon, "He has in his 
character everything necessary to have made an honest 



I02 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

Talleyrand ; suppleness which stops where ruse begins ; 
energy developed in mildness ; the steel blade in the vel- 
vet sheath." These qualities have of course received their 
chief development since M. Simon went into active poli- 
tics ; and in the field where he has been fighting for the 
last ten years, he has needed every one of them. When 
he came to succeed Victor Cousin in the chair of philoso- 
phy at the Sorbonne, no one would have ventured to pre- 
dict that Simon would win signal triumphs as a cabinet 
minister and an orator in the Assembly. The youth of 
twenty-five was, in outward manner, as unlike the man of 
three-score as can well be imagined. Simon does not 
look like a bookish man, nor like one who ha^ burned the 
midnight oil, although he has, and plenty of it. At the first 
glance one might fancy him a director or counselor of 
some large railway company, or the prosperous head of a 
huge mercantile enterprise. Time has dealt gently with 
him ; he has been too much occupied with schemes for 
the bettering of his kind to devote many moments to the 
deterioration of his own constitution ; and he has many 
years of work yet before him. He is not rich, for he has 
been unselfish, and sometimes a little negligent of his 
financial interests, but he has a comfortable position, and 
is doubtless completely satisfied. A good many of the 
same people who have caviled at him because he remained 
a long time in the ministry of Public Instruction, and who 
like to hint that he sought after the emoluments of the office, 
or he would not have remained in the midst of his adver- 
saries — a good many of those same folks would have filled 
their pockets had they had the opportunities which he 
never improved. 



JULES SIMON. 103 

M. Simon was born at Lorient, in the department of 
Morbihan, on the 31st of December, 18 14. The name given 
him by his parents was Jules Francois Simon Suisse, but 
he adopted the name of Simon, and has never been known 
by any other. He studied first at the little college in 
reorient, and at another similar one in Vannes, after which 
he entered as an assistant teacher in the Lycee at Rennes. 
He achieved his education for himself In the pref- 
ace to his interesting volume on "Capital Punishment" 
he has given us a glimpse of his youthful poverty. He 
says: "I had just cohipleted my studies in 1833 — liter- 
ally at my own expense — giving morning and evening les- 
sons in writing and spelling to pay my board and my fees 
in college. I went to Rennes on foot to pass my exami- 
nations as bachelor there, and I was officially received into 
the normal school. My comrades never knew t-iiat I went 
without my dinner every day that it was not served in the 
college. But I do not complain, even though my child- 
hood and youth were somewhat troubled with hardships ; 
nor am I sorry that I passed my early years, I who am a 
free-thinker and a republican, among Catholics and Carlists." 

He remained at the normal school for some time, was 
received as fellow of philosophy in 1835, and professed that 
scienc© successively at Caen and Versailles. At the latter 
place he achieved a brilliant success, and it must have been 
with pleasure that he returned, forty years thereafter, to 
the charming old town, as cabinet minister and one of the 
leaders of his party, although he voted for the return of the 
capital to Paris. He was a far more popular man than 
Victor Cousin, whose earnest disciple he was ; and who 
called him to Paris, and secured for him a charge at the 



I04 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

normal school in that city. He was for a time a supple- 
mentary lecturer on the history of philosophy, but a year 
after his arrival in Paris, he became the principal lecturer. 
In 1839, he succeeded M. Cousin, at the latter's request, 
in the philosophy course, and for twelve years had a shin- 
ing career as one of the most promising university men in 
France. His philosophical lectures were far more attractive 
than Cousin's had ever been, and the Sorbonne was better 
frequented on "philosophy days'' than it has ever been 
since. Some people fancied that Simon would have 
strength enough to found his own school of philosophy, 
and even to surpass the reputation which Cousin had left 
behind him ; but these hopes were soon checked, and 
were not revived ; because it daily became more and more 
evident, toward the close of Simon's stay at the Sorbonne, 
that he had taste and aptitude for politics. Some people 
shrugged their shoulders, and denounced the professor as 
ambitious ; others thought him foolish. 

But the real truth was that the professor demanded a 
wider field of action than he found behind his lecture-desk 
at the Sorbonne, and he v/as not sorry when the opportu- 
nity came to plunge into politics. He became the candi- 
date of the moderate opposition in the department of the 
C6tes-du-Nord in 1846. In his campaign circular he 
declared that he belonged to the Constitutional Left, de- 
manded electoral reforms, and attacked the Guizot minis- 
try, saying that it humiliated the dignity of France on every 
possible occasion. This was a popular programme ; yet 
the enmity of ihe clergy, and, perhaps, the fact that Simon 
was a state functionary in a university, secured his defeat. 
No whit discouraged, he kept up his acquaintance with the 



JULES SIMON. '105 

political world. In December of 1847 he founded, in com- 
pany with one of his most distinguished university col- 
leagues — with whom he had already published a '' Manual 
of Philosophy, " — a political and philosophical review called 
"The Liberty of Thought. " Simon edited the political 
department of this publication ; and his ideas made progress 
in the outer world. After the Revolution he was warmly 
welcomed into the arena of politics, and was elected to the 
Constituent Assembly from the same department— the Cotes- 
du-Nord — which had previously rejected him. He classed 
himself with the Moderate Left in the Assembly, and 
entered with some ardor into the work of the committee 
on the organization of labor. He had been elected by 
sixty-five thousand six hundred and thirty-eight votes from 
a department where both organization and re-organization 
were imperatively necessary ; and his advice and aid were 
warmly received. In addition to his duty to his constitu- 
ents, he worked on the labor question because he loved it. 
During his earlier years at the Sorbonne, he had written 
much on the subject, had talked with what then appeared 
great boldness about economical reform, the condition of 
the working classes, and labor and capital. He was listened 
to with deference ; for he had already been decorated with 
the Legion of Honor as a public educator ; had written 
much in the Revue des Deux Mondes on philosophical and 
practical subjects ; and although moderate, was liberal. 
He spoke several times in the Constituent Assembly on 
the subject of educational reform, and energetically de- 
fended the rights of the State and the principles of the 
University. He was selected to bring forward the law on 
primary instruction framed by Carnot, which was succeeded 
5* 



I06 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

by the famous Falloux law. In the labor committee M. 
Simon did much to combat the influence of the dreaded M. 
Albert, whose faults and merits have been so faithfully 
portrayed by M. Louis Blanc in his ' ' History of the Rev- 
olution of 1848." 

When the troubles of June, 1848, came on, Jules 
Simon displayed great firmness of character. He was one 
of the representatives who went resolutely into the rebel- 
lious quarters of Paris, and made overtures of conciliation 
to the rebels. It never occurred to him that his life was in 
danger ; and so great was his coolness that one day while 
he was behind a barricade, endeavoring to reason with the 
insurgents, one grim fellow said, " Suppose that we should 
serve you as we served the traitor Brea ? " Whereupon 
Simon coolly indicated that he wished they would, if they 
would only consent to conciliation afterwards. His cool- 
ness saved him then, as it helped him when he was the 
temporary prisoner of the spasmodic commune of October, 
1871. 

Simon manifested his hostility to Louis Napoleon when 
'that worthy was before the French people as a candidate for 
prince-president. He had taken to journalism as a means of 
airing the principles which led him to fight against the Fal- 
loux law, and Napoleon's candidacy came up just as Simon 
was preparing to become a member of the staff of the cele- 
brated National. Simon was at one time suggested for a 
member of the Council of State, but he did not succeed in 
obtaining a place there. He contented himself with vig- 
orous articles upon current politics, and it is curious to 
note that he, with unerring instinct, registered his opposi- 
tion to every one of the measures which preceded and con- 



JULES SIMON. 107 

ducted to the Coup d'Etat. When Napoleon came into 
power, M. Simon found his course of lectures at the Col- 
lege de France suspended. He was asked to take the oath 
of allegiance to the Empire, and naturally refused in a man- 
ner which made his contempt and loathing clearly mani- 
fest. He was therefore coolly considered as having resigned, ■ 
He shut the door of the University resolutely behind him, 
and stepped down into the field of politics and literature 
with an air which boded no good to usurpers and frauds in 
general, and to one usurper in particular. He worked 
hard wfth his pen and wrote a number of good books on 
social and religious topics, which added immensely to his 
reputation. He gave lectures in Brussels, in Ghent, in 
Liege, in Antwerp, where he said what he pleased, and gave 
the Emperor many an unpleasant thrust. He interested 
himself in the condition of the working classes ; and there 
are few books on the condition of oppressed women-opera- 
tives in large cities more tender, more considerate, more truth- 
ful, than Jules Simon's volume called "The Workwoman." 
In it he pictures, with startling force and graphic power, 
the miserable existence of the women who are ground un- 
der the heel of the tyrant capital ; and traces to their miseries 
the causes of an hundred social ills which disfigure France. 
He took up, in his books on the " Ouvrier de Huit Ans," and 
on "Labor " and "The School," difficult and delicate ques- 
tions, and discussed them with freedom and a richness of illus- 
tration and suggestion which has made them authorities 
on the subjects of which they treat. He became so thor- 
oughly interested in the labor question, that the first speech 
which he made in the Corps Legislatif, was with regard to 
the liberty of toil. He was welcomed by liberal-minded 



I08 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

men, to the circle of deputies, as a true patriot, who, as a 
legislator, would be sure to do the country good. He had 
presented himself as a candidate in 1857, from Paris, but 
was defeated. In 1863 Paris sent him to oppose Imperial 
ideas, and on the 19th of January, 1864, he delivered his 
first speech in the body where he was destined to play such 
an important role. 

Simon's ideas with regard to education were just and 
liberal, and the emperor was shrewd enough to under- 
stand that with Jules Simon for Minister of Public In- 
struction, he could boast that the Empire was inclined to 
liberality and progress. The good deputy was repeatedly 
offered the seductive bait of the ministry, with handsome 
appointments and great liberties, which were, of course, 
only imaginary. But he would not take the sop. He 
put away gently, but firmly, all the tempters who came to 
him. Many of his friends who did not possess his fore- 
sight called him penny wise and pound foolish ; they even 
reproached him for not taking advantage of his opportu- 
nities. But he bided his time. 

In 1869 he was re-elected from the departments of the 
Aisne and the Gironde, and soon became a chief in the 
republican party. To his eloquence and that of Jules 
Favre, the overwhelming ridicule under which the Em- 
pire's so-called " liberalism " was buried, was largely due. 
The overthrow of the imperial edifice, after the unhappy 
termination of the Franco-Prussian war, did not astonish 
him. There was one place in the new Government of 
National Defense — of which he was naturally made a 
prominent member by the events of the 4th of September 
■ — which he was eminently qualified to fill, and it was at 



JULES SIMON. 109 

once given him. Simon, who would not take the post 
of Minister of PubHc Instruction and Fine Arts to please 
and aid the emperor, took it at once to serve the young 
Republic. France has never had a better man in the 
place. 

The new minister was often a Avise counselor and 
always a man of action during the terrible da3S of the 
siege. He was active in the provinces after the signature 
of the armistice, in enforcing the decrees of the Govern- 
ment of the Defense relative to the elections, and mean- 
time was constantly occupying himself with schemes for 
the amelioration of the educational system of the country. 
On the 8th of February, 1871, he was elected to the Na- 
tional Assembly from the department of the Marne by 
thirty-one thousand four hundred and fifty-one votes. 
Thiers, of course, welcomed him to the new cabinet, insist- 
ing that he should retain the portfolio of public instruc- 
tion. The clerical party was in high dudgeon, because 
Simon remained in power, and used every means in its 
power to overthrow him, while he smiled serenely or con- 
temptuously upon their efforts. He put his shoulder to 
the wheel, and great reforms were soon apparent. He 
introduced a project of law for primary instruction, which 
was exceedingly liberal, but which the Church fought to the 
death, and finally succeeded in burying under one of its 
own, which is stale and unprofitable. Fie was as diligent in 
improving the condition of the national museums as in 
bettering the schools. But the movement which has made 
him chiefly conspicuous of late, and which has drawn the 
attention of all Europe upon him, has been the remark- 
able campaign with regard to reforms in secondary in- 



no BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

struction which he began with the issue of his circular of 
October of 1872. The previous efforts of M. Simon had 
merely offended and angered the formidable clerical party, 
but this later one maddened it. A free-thinker, a repub- 
lican, an " energetic defender of the prerogatives of the 
university," and a man "sprung out of the chaos of the 
4th of September," was not likely to win much love from 
the fiery Dupanloup and his faithful followers. The cam- 
paign, elsewhere alluded to in these pages, resulted in the 
discomfiture of the clericals, who, notwithstanding their 
subsequent triumphs, can hardly look back to their joust 
with Simon with anything like pleasure. 

Simon was overthrown, or rather compelled to retire 
from his post, by what the French are fond of calling an 
"extra parliamentary " incident. A few days before M. 
Thiers himself was worsted, M. Simon delivered an ad- 
dress before the Generaf Assembly of learned societies, at 
the Sorbonne. In this address he alludes with great ear- 
nestness and depth of feeling to the venerable Thiers as the 
person who alone had accomplished the liberation of 
French territory from the tread of the invader. " To him 
alone," said M. Simon, " do we owe the deliverance ; and 
I bear witness to it. I, who have seen him struggling 
every day in the midst of the increasing difficulties with 
which the strife of parties environed him." 

The Right took immediate advantage of this generous 
praise accorded by one republican to another. The most 
adroit members pretended that they saw in this statement 
an endeavor to deny that the Right had done good service 
in getting France to rights again ; and, as they threatened 
to interrogate the government on the subject, M. Thiers 



JULES SIMON. Ill 

thought it best to secure M. Simon's resignation from the 
ministry. Not at all disconcerted, Simon gave up his 
portfolio, went back to the benches among the simple 
members, and was soon president of the Left, and the 
recognized chief in all the committee work of the moder- 
ate party. 

Simon was a tower of strength for the Republicans, while 
the attempt at monarchical restoration was in progress. 
He did as much to consolidate the Republic as any other 
man living in France to-day. The firm and courageous 
accents of the discourse in which he pointed out the 
dangers which he feared might ensue if the powers of 
Marshal MacMahon were confirmed, are still remembered. 
The speeches which he made while combating for the 
liberty of superior instruction, will find a lofty niche in the 
shrine of French literature. They are superb in diction, 
fascinating in eloquence, and profoundly logical. Dupan- 
loup is the equal of Simon in force, enthusiasm and logic, 
but in the tribune he does not appear to one half as much 
advantage as his famous adversary. 

The literary career of M. Simon was in no sense inter- 
rupted by his political labors. It has, in many respects, been 
most remarkable. Some of his works have won a world- 
wide i-eputation, among them the philosophical treatise 
entitled "Liberty," the "Devoir" — which has been trans- 
lated into modern Greek, — and the "Natural Religion," of 
which there is a good English translation. The " Devoir," 
the "Natural Religion," and "Liberty of Conscience" 
form a kind of philosophical trilogy. Much of the latter 
volume was originally written for lectures in Belgium, 
when M. Simon was compelled, by the advent of the 



112 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

Empire, to absent himself from France. He has written a 
"History of the School of Alexandria ; " has edited, with 
elaborate introductions, the works of Descartes, Bossuet, 
Malebranche, and Antoine Arnaud ; has been an impor- 
tant contributor to the ' ' Manual of Philosophy " and 
the "Dictionary o-f Philosophical Sciences;" and, since 
1840, has been one of the most constant and popular 
contributors to the Revue des Deux Monies. From no 
man do the French more heartily welcome a volume on 
social topics than from this philosopher-politician. M. 
Simon has written, since he resigned his portfolio, two 
interesting volumes— one dealing with the important ques- 
tion of "Reforms in Secondary Instruction," and the other 
giving his " Souvenirs of the Fourth of September." In this 
latter volume he gives a charmingly modest and faithful 
account of his role during the siege, when he was the hero 
of numerous adyentures, not the least important of which 
was his imprisonment in the Hotel de Ville by the belli- 
cose National Guards, who imagined that the time for their 
revolution had arrived. 

A man who feels keenly, sees deeply into human woe, 
Simon has long been an acute student of the needs of 
criminals and the injustices done them. He is the relent- 
less enemy of capital punishment ; has made eloquent 
speeches against its enforcement, and does not yet despair 
of abolishing it in France. His little book on the death- 
penalty created a profound sensation. The perfectly un- 
affected yet deeply moving manner in which he tells the 
story of three brothers, who were falsely condemned to 
death on circumstaritial evidence, and the delightful en- 
thusiasm with which he pleads for the sacredness of human 



JULES SIMON. 113 

life, make " The Death-Penalty " a book which you cannot 
read without tears. 

Simon has been a member of the French Academy of 
Moral and Political Sciences since 1863, and has just 
been elected (December 16, 1875) a member of the Aca- 
deme Fi'ancaise. As he was also chosen, almost simul- 
taneously, to be a Senator for life, the cup of his ambition 
must be for the present full. He lives plainly in one 
apartment, in an upper story in the Place de la Madeleine 
in Paris ; and when he is not occupied in the legislative 
halls or in his library, he is wandering up and down the 
provinces, filling the minds of the peasants with sound 
republican doctrine. 



Marshal MacMahon, 

DUG DE MAGENTA. 



\, 




ARIE EDINE PATRICE MAURICE DE MAC- 
MAHON was born in the chateau of Sully, on 
the river Dore, near Autun, June 13, 1808. 
He was the sixteenth of seventeen children, and his 
father, tenderly devoted to him, was so much encouraged 
by the rapid progress of the youth's studies in the 
little seminary of Autun, that he sent him, in 1825, to 
the military school of St. Cyr, at Versailles. His career 
in that institution was brilliant, there being in the young 
officer's temper a touch of that old Irish dash and fervor 
which had already made the MacMahons famous and beloved 
when they accompanied James the Second into exile in 
France, after the battle of the Boyne. MacMahon plunged 
into the dangers and fatigues of the campaign of conquest 
undertaken by the French in Algeria, with an ardor and 
talent which speedily won him renown. A warm-hearted 
and vigorous son of Burgundy, where his ancestors had 
been ennobled, and where the patrimonial domain is to-day 
large, every step of his splendid youthful career was 



MARSHAL MACMAHON. II5 

marked with the impress of his rich vitality. As a lieu- 
tenant, he won fame and the cross of the " Legion of Hon- 
or," by fighting the Kabyles along the slope of the Atlas. 
He was recalled to France from Algeria in 1830, only to 
distinguish himself as aide-de-camp to Gen. Achard at 
the siege of Antwerp ; and then, with scarcely breathing 
time for vacation, hejeturned to his African campaigns. He 
commanded wild cavalry charges across Bedouin-infested 
plains ; was made a captain at twenty-five ; was conspicuous 
for daring at the siege of Constantine, in 1837, fighting 
side by side with the Due de Nemours, and with the young 
officer afterwards Marshal Niel. From that time until 
1855 he was almost constantly in Algeria, rising steadily 
in rank, making brief visits to France, where he was adored 
as a bean sabreur, but remaining apparently absorbed in his 
profession ; at forty-four he was a division general who had 
seen twenty-seven years of active service. The wild tribes 
of the desert knew him as " The Invulnerable," and feared 
his prowess. 

MacMahon plunged into the Crimean war with the same 
impetuous vehemence which characterized his earlier cam- 
paigns. When Niel assigned him the most perilous posi- 
tion in the grand final attack on the Malakoff tower, 
MacMahon said, " I will enter it, and you may be certain 
that I shall not be removed from it living ! " He did en- 
ter it, after a colossal and terrible struggle, whose bravery 
brightens French military annals ; and when Pelissier sent 
the daring general a timorous caution to beware of some 
unexpected explosion, after the Russians had deserted the 
tower, MacMahon's only answer was, "Here I am, and 
here I remain ! " And he held his post with his command. 



Il6 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

amid deadliest peril. The determined blow struck by him 
hastened the fall of Sebastopol. 

Always a shy man when out of the saddle, MacMahon 
found Europe tame and disagreeable, at the close of the 
hostilities in the Crimea. He had been named senator 
in 1856, but this honor, like the others heaped upon him, 
only wearied him. He refused the highest command in 
France, and at his own earnest solicitation, was sent back 
to Algeria, where he once more fell upon the Kabyles, and 
smote them hip and thigh. Five years later, he returned 
to the French Senate, where his most notable deeds were 
his vote against the unconstitutional " Law for General 
Safety " — a measure which Napoleon 111. and his sup- 
porters, after the Orsini attempt at assassination, were not 
slow in proposing. 

But it was in the Italian war that he won his great re- 
nown. On the field of Magenta the Emperor gave him 
the baton of a Marshal of France, and the title of Duke of 
Magenta. He was received with the liveliest acclamations 
in Milan ; and as he rode in at the head of his troops, 
took up in his arms the little girl who offered him a 
bouquet, and carried her forward, smilingly caressing her. 
His Italian triumphs made the ever-vigilant French Em- 
peror a little jealous of him, and after the new duke had 
been sent, at the head of a brilliant embassy, to represent 
France at the coronation of William I. of Prussia, he 
was once more remanded to the obscurity of Algeria, where 
he was made Governor-General. During the Prussian 
fete Marshal MacMahon and the Duchess of Magenta were 
much in the company of, and danced with the Prussian 
Prince and Princess Royal ; and Madame MacMahon, ac- 



MARSHAL MACMAHON. 11/ 

cording to the chronicles of the time, was " embraced with 
effusion " by Queen Augusta, who to-day would hardly 
be welcome at Versailles. 

Marshal MacMahon, during his governor-generalship 
in Algeria, did his best to carry out the emperor's design 
of founding an Arab kingdom, but found it almost impos- 
sible. He instituted many important reforms in the colo- 
nies, and at the rnoment of his recall, on the accession of 
the OUivier cabinet, was more active than ever before. As 
soon as war was declared against Prussia in 1870, he was 
assigned to the command of the First Army Corps. He 
did all that he could to check the unhappy retreat of 
the French from Wissembourg, and fought courageously 
against great odds at Woerth, braving death in the most 
reckless manner, and wringing testimonials of admiration 
from his enemies. He hurled the superb regiments of 
cuu'assiers against the enemy ; his spirit and daring in- 
spired and rendered for a time effective the most magnifi- 
cent and desperate cavalry charges of modern warfare. 
But it was in vain to fight one hundred and ten thousand 
Prussians with only thirty thousand Frenchmen, and Mac- 
Mahon was compelled to fall back to Nancy, leaving four 
thousand prisoners in the enemy's hands. Retiring to 
Chalons, he was busily occupied in forming a new army, 
when ordered to eff"ect a junction with Bazaine's forces at 
Metz. On his march he was forced into Sedan. He 
made a desperate efi"ort to cut his way through the Prussian 
forces on the ist of September, but was badly wounded in 
the thigh, in consequence of which he resigned his com- 
mand to General Ducrot. Taken prisoner with the em- 
peror and the discouraged and dismayed army, MacMahon 



Il8 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

was sent to Pourre-au-Bois, a small village near the Bel- 
gian frontier, where he remained until his recover}-, when 
he went to join his fellow-prisoners in Germany. - He 
lived at Wiesbaden until the declaration of peace. 

MacMahon returned to Paris on the i6th of March, 
1 871. Two days after his arrival, the Communal insurrec- 
tion occurred. MacMahon followed M. Thiers to Ver- 
sailles, and on the 6th of April was named General-in- 
Chief of such forces as he could rally. On the 28th of 
May, 1 871, he issued a proclamation announcing the de- 
liverance of Paris and the annihilation of the insurrection 
and ip supporters. With sixty thousand men, in a furious 
seven days' fight inside the walls of Paris, he succeeded in 
overthrowing the Commune. Throughout the whole 
struggle MacMahon was as calm and collected, yet as 
prompt in action, as in all his other campaigns. A weaker 
man would never have been able to suppress so deter- 
mined a movement as that organized by the Communist 
faction. 

The unwillingness to accept the presidency of the Re- 
public manifested -by MacMahon, when, on the 24th of 
May, 1873, the venerable Thiers resigned and retired, was 
evidently sincere. After much urging, he finally yielded, 
however, and addressed to the Assembly a letter accepting 
their charge, and giving his word as "an honest man and 
a soldier," that he, in conjunction with the army, would 
' maintain internal peace, and support those principles on 
which society reposes." He was offered an early occasion 
to show his determination to support the sovereignty of 
the National Assembly. An officer of the army having 
refused to recognize that sovereignty, MacMahon issued a 



MARSHAL MACMAHON. II9 

proclamation gravely rebuking the officer, and containing 
a warning against such conduct in future. 

On the 5th of November, 1873, General Changarnier 
presented to the Assembly a proposition that MacMahon's 
power be confirmed for a period of ten years, and that a 
commission of thirty be appointed to make studies for 
projects of constitutional law. This proposition was pre- 
sented to MacMahon by a committee headed by the 
Comte de Remusat. The marshal expressed himself 
fully willing that the passage of constitutional laws should 
accompany any prolongation of his own powers, and on 
the 17th of November, 1873, he addressed to the As- 
sembly a message in which he declared in favor of a con- 
firmation of his power for seven years, and a determination 
to use all his influence for conservatism. After much op- 
position, the "Septennate" was definitely established on the 
night of the 19th of November, by a vote of three hun- 
dred and seventy-eight against three hundred and ten. 

Mr. Grenville Murray has given us, in a charming 
paper on MacMahon's career, a glimpse at the times of 
the soldier's youth ; days when Thiers was attacking 
Charles X. in fiery newspaper articles ; when royal- 
ists and liberals were literally at swords' points daily. 
Young MacMahon was the son of a man whom Charles 
X. had placed in the Chamber of Peers, and it was not, 
therefore, astonishing that he should have been a Legiti- 
mist fire-eater. When the Orleanists succeeded the Bour- 
bons, MacMahon w-as fighting in Algeria. Like many 
other officers, he took the new oath of allegiance, and, if 
he still felt sympathy for Bourbonism, kept it secret. He 
was on the side of " order " in 1848, inclined to sneer at 



120 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

the Republic and to depict its downfall ; and when the 
Empire was re-established, expressed no profound dissatis- 
faction, but went solidly in for a "career," and got it. 

Marshal MacMahon is to-day a handsome and well-pre- 
served gentleman of sixty-seven. A long, sober, and ac- 
tive life has left but few traces of fatigue on his features. 
He is of medium height, of austere habits, and of irre- 
proachable elegance in his manners. His private life has 
been spotless ; for half a century he has been universally 
respected. Until his later years, he has been unduly modest 
and shy of the world. He is a superb horseman, an en- 
thusiastic sportsman, and, above all, ardently fond of mili- 
tary display and all matters pertaining to army adminis- 
tration. He is good-natured and affable, and won the love 
of the peasant population in his journey up and down the 
country after the declaration of the " Septennate." When 
at Versailles, he lives in the modest Prefecture which was 
occupied by King William, during his sojourn in front of 
Paris. The marshal always rises at six a. m. , rings for 
Frangois, an old soldier, who has been his valet for many 
years, and orders a cup of black coffee. He spends the 
early morning in his private study with his secretaries and 
aides-de-camp, except on days when the Council of Min- 
isters assembles. He invariably presides at this council. 
He breakfasts toward noon, spending almost as little time 
at his meals as an American man of business, and then re- 
ceives visitors from one to three p. m. From that time until 
early evening he is in the saddle, reviewing regiments or 
inspecting barracks. On Thursdays he gives official re- 
ceptions and dinners, and, save on extraordinary occasions, 
goes punctually to bed at half- past ten. In Paris the 



MARSHAL MACMAHON. 121 

Marshal-President inhabits the Palace of the Elysee, where 
numerous brilliant fetes and receptions are given each 
season. Madame MacMahon and her children are seen 
much in public, and the Duchess is a leader in all good 
works of charity. 



MONSEIGNEUR DUPANLOUP. 




ONSEIGNEUR DUPANLOUP, Bishop of Or- 
leans, and member of the French National As- 
sembly at the time that the question of the free- 
dom of superior education was under discussion, will live 
in French history. There is no more fresh and vital fig- 
ure in modern France, than this intellectual and irascible 
prelate, whose ruddy face and stormy brow betray the elo- 
quence and tempestuous fervor of his spirit. He is every 
inch a Gaul : impulsive, passionate, often illogical. 
Sometimes he is highly inconsistent ; to-day he is illiberal 
and painfully Ultramontane ; to-morrow seemingly will- 
ing to condescend to a generosity which frightens the 
Church, and moves the good fathers to whip the eccentric 
brother back into the traces. Had he been as firm and 
uncompromising as Father Hyacinthe, and boldly taken 
ground against numerous fallacies with regard to the duties 
of the priesthood, he would have been mightier and more 
celebrated than the reverend Mr. Loyson can ever hope to 
be. Dupanloup is a wonderfully effective worker for 



MONSEIGNEUR DUPANLOUP. 1 23 

Holy Church in France, because he is too skillful to set 
himself directly against the current of popular vdll. He 
does not enrage and offend the masses by denying them 
their liberties point-blank ; he has in his nature possibili- 
ties of compromise which have made the moderate repub- 
licans of these later days ready and anxious to work with 
him. It seems almost incredible that he should be con- 
tent to bow his proud and imperious head before the ex- 
acting will of Rome ; but he has never yet failed to do it, . 
although it has once or twice seemed as if he were about 
to throw away his allegiance to illiberalism, and to step 
forth untrammeled into the arena of liberty. 

But Monseigneur Dupanloup does not understand lib- 
erty in its fullest and completest sense. He is agreed 
that certain liberties should be enjoyed, provided the 
Church may have the power of defining what these liber- 
ties and privileges are to be. He is to-day quite as much 
a partisan for church control of education as he was a 
quarter of a century ago, when he showed such a devour- 
ing activity in the task of destroying secular instruction in 
his diocese, and replacing all schools taught by the laity 
with institutions for religious education. Under the last 
Empire his zeal in this behalf was so remarkable as to be 
generally noticed outside his own country. YLe /ought to 
accomplish his object ; he used no soft persuasive ways, 
but went at his enemies with hammer and tongs, and 
generally compelled them to beat a speedy retreat. He 
likes to give and take blows ; he should have been born 
four centuries ago, and have been a man-at-arms in the 
service of some quarrelsome prince, rather than a peaceful 
priest owing allegiance to Christ's vicar on earth. All stu- 



124 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

dents of the religious question in France remember with 
what fiery joy, with what untamable and admirable 
strength, the young-old priest sprang into polemics with 
Louis Veuillot, the fanatical and pugilistic editor of the 
Univers, of Paris. The two doughty knights battered each 
other well in controversy, and now and then the venerable 
Dupanloup was brought to the ground, but he always 
came up smiling, and returned to the struggle with re- 
newed energies. Sometimes the Church has felt as if it 
were perhaps a pity that Monseigneur Dupanloup has 
such a ready tongue and so combative a disposition ; but 
at others, as notably in the recent discussions in the As- 
sembly, those qualities have done }^eoman service for the 
clerical party. 

Dupanloup was born January 3, 1802, in the little vil- 
lage of St. Felix, in the forests of the Alps in Savoy. That 
portion of Savoy was annexed to the French Empire about 
that year, but Dupanloup himself was not naturalized as 
a French subject until 1838. His mother had him bap- 
tized as Felix Antoine Philibert Dupanloup, and the noble 
woman sacrificed herself and fought hard with poverty 
that she might give her boy a good bringing up. Young 
Dupanloup studied under his uncle, who was a priest, 
until he was eight years old, when he was sent to Paris, to 
study in an ecclesiastical school under the direction of 
the Abbe Tesseyre. There he took first rank, and speedily 
went thence to the Seminary of Saint Nicholas du Char- 
dronnel, and from that institution to the College of Saint 
Sulpice. There he was fortunate enough to make the 
acquaintance of the Cardinal Archbishop of Besanfon, 
once the Prince de Rohan. This high-minded and Intel- 



MONSEIGNEUR DUPANLOUP. 125 

lectual nobleman had been so unfortunate as to lose his 
lovely and accomplished wife by a fatal accident. The 
poor creature had been burned to death, and her husband, 
overwhelmed with sorrow at her loss, had hidden his grief 
under the black robe of the Holy Order. The Cardinal 
was exceedingly fond of literature ; and was accustomed 
to invite the most promising of the students at Saint Sul- 
pice to spend their vacations with him. Dupanloup was 
generally among the lucky invited, and he learned, in 
this atmosphere of culture and refinement, a thousand 
graces which he would otherwise have missed. These 
graces add a singular charm to a character and manners 
naturally angular and rude, reflecting the defiance of the 
soldier rather than the grateful calmness and repose of the 
student or philosopher. 

After he had chosen the church as his profession, and 
had been ordained, he rose very rapidly in public consid- 
eration. He was a teacher, as he has been nearly all his 
life, from the very outset of his career ; and the Duchesse 
d'Angouleme was so favorably impressed with him that she 
secured his appointment as confessor to the child, then 
the Duke of Bordeaux, and now the Count de Chambord. 
Dupanloup next became catechist to the Orleans princes, 
and then Chaplain to the Duchesse de Berri. 

The Revolution of 1830 disturbed him somewhat. Soon 
after its close he became the founder of the Academy of 
Saint Hyacinthe, in Paris, where religious lectures were 
given to young workmen and to other youth. In 1834, 
he declined an appointment as head-master at the Paris 
Seminary ; but became chief professor there, and was so 
faithful that he was given the mastership in 1837, and in 



126 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

-the same 3^ear was appointed vicar-general of the diocese. 
It was while at this seminary that Ernest Renan was under 
the tuition of Dupanloup. The venerable archbishop 
often speaks of the author of the "Life of Jesus" with 
great affection, although always admitting that his former 
pupil has strayed into forbidden paths. 

Dupanloup resigned his vicar-generalship at the time of 
the death of Archbishop Quelen, who had appointed him 
to it ; and solely because he did not like the archbishop's 
successor. But the latter was magnanimous, and, instead 
of injuring Dupanloup, made him honorary yicar-general, 
and sent him on an important mission to Rome, to the 
Papal Court. 

The years between 1837 and the priest's appointment 
to the see of Orleans were full of hard work for Du- 
panloup. But they were also filled with triumphs, for there 
was no other man in France whose preaching attracted half 
as much attention as did Dupanloup's sermons at St. Roch, 
and his lecture's at Notre Dame. There was passion, and 
underneath it was learning, in all his spoken efforts. He 
was appointed profesor of sacred eloquence at the Col- 
lege of the Sorbonne. From his first appearance on 
the lecture platform the students seemed inclined to re- 
sent his fiery and dogmatic manner of trampling on many 
of their pet theories ; and a storm soon broke over his 
head. On the occasion of his sixth lecture, when he 
had announced that he would speak upon the works 
and the character of Voltaire, the students rallied from 
all parts of the Latin Quarter, prepared to give the enthu- 
siastic clergyman a proof of their resentment. Dupanloup 
gave Voltaire a terrible scorching, and the lecture' was in- 



MONSEIGNEUR DUPANLOUP. I27 

terrupted by such a tremendous outburst of hisses and 
such a general uproar, that he seemed likely for some mo- 
ments to be mobbed. Dupanloup never obtained another 
hearing at the Sorbonne ; the enraged students would "have 
killed him had he ventured any farther. 

This active and uncompromising man became Bishop of 
Orleans in 1849, under the Second Republic. He was 
so busy at the time that the Empire came in, with carrying 
out his p'ans for religious education, that he at first paid 
but small attention to Napoleon the Third, or his schemes. 
Later, however, he burst into fiery denunciation of Napo- 
leon and his policy, — when he discovered that this policy 
was by no means dictated in pure obedience to ultramon- 
tanism. It became a little the fashion to call Dupanloup 
a pronounced liberal and heterodox, but he was never any- 
thing of the sort, nor did he really desire to be. He 
wrote pamphlets against the Emperor, but he did this not 
because he was especially averse to the Empire, but because 
he was hostile to an existing government which would not 
allow itself to be guided by the Church. He was too 
honest to cringe before the Empire in hope of gaining 
place and power, and he gave the usurper no small trouble. 

He founded religious schools even in his episcopal pal- 
ace in Orleans, and did his best to cultivate friendly rela- 
tions with the working classes. Even to this day, he gives 
little parties at his house, inviting all the workmen of the 
city to them ; he ofi'ers them tea, which they do not like, 
and advice and simple games, which they like ; the inspira- 
tion is mutual, and the example is worth copying. He 
has always understood admirably how to control and 
teach young people. Pope Gregory XVI. complimented 



128 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

him as the "apostle of youth." He is a born teacher, 
within the narrow limits which he has chosen to assign 
himself. 

The world is reasonably familiar with the battles waged 
between Dupanloup and Louis Veuillot, and with the for- 
mer's generous support, for a time, of Liberal Catholicism, 
and the indignant and contemptuous manner in which the 
great prelate at first rejected the dogma of infallibility. 
It v/as a source of no small surprise to the great numbers 
who fancied that they saw in Dupanloup a new reformer, 
when he submitted himself to the decisions of the Oecu- 
menical Council of 1869, and went back into the ortho- 
dox ranks. The haughty mind which had sneered at the 
Encyclical Letter and the Syllabus, became one of the most 
ardent defenders of illiberal measures ; and when Dupan- 
loup was elected to the Assembly, he was considered by 
the Ultramontanes as likely to be a most useful cham- 
pion. 

Dupanloup became one of the " forty immortals " of the 
French Academy, in May, 1854, and signalized his admis- 
sion by reading a powerful essay. He took the chair left 
vacant by Tissot. In 1863, he combated successfully, by 
intrigue and open effort, the struggles of M. Littre, to se- 
cure a seat in the Academy ; and when, in December of 
1 87 1, Littre succeeded in securing his election, Monsei- 
gneur Dupanloup was nearly beside himself with rage. 
He resigned his own fauteuil at once, thus carrying reli- 
gious intolerance to the extremest verge. Dupanloup 
could not forgive Littre for having translated Strauss's 
"Life of Jesus," and for his copious writings on Auguste 
Comte and his system of philosophy. Not even the gigan- 



MONSEIGNEUR DUPANLOUP. I29 

tic intellectual labors of the man who prepared the 
noblest French dictionary likely to be seen for many 
generations, was sufficient to soften the implacable 
prelate's heart. Dupanloup received the congratulations 
of the Pope, who sent him a special brief in which he 
solemnly felicitated him on separating himself from the 
company of the "impious and the wicked." The mali- 
cious have never ceased asking Dupanloup why he is will- 
ing to sit in a National Assembly where Littre is also an 
honored representative of the people, and not with the 
same man in a purely literary body ; but the prelate has 
never deigned to respond. As for Littre, he bore Dupan- 
loup's slights with the sweet and great calm peculiar to 
himself One might have imagined that he had never 
iieard of the priest's hasty resignation from the body of 
Academicians. 

Monseigneur Dupanloup has played a great and impor- 
tant role in the National Assembly since he entered it as a 
deputy, and one cannot help admitting that he has had 
some very remarkable successes. It is hardly necessary to 
say that he has never been in favor of the Republic. He 
looks upon it as the forerunner of evil, and his voice is of- 
ten heard in condemnation of it. He can scarcely be 
called an Orleanist ; yet he is, and long has been, more in- 
timately connected with men of that party than with any 
others. He was elected to the Assembly from the depart- 
ment of the Lorret, in 1871, by twenty-eight thousand 
five hundred and ninety-six votes ; and has kept his place 
th-ere ever since. He took his position with the Moderate 
Right, as the leader of the clerical party ; and there he 
found himself in an atrnosphere of intrigue which, en^ 
6* 



130 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

abled him safely to mature his numerous plans. Had it 
not been for the fact that he is, as has been well said of 
him, "one of that race of restless and imperious men 
who like to put yokes on other people's necks, but will 
submit to none on their own ; " had he not now and then 
been too intensely individual, and been carried away on 
the current of his own passions, he might have been first 
among French leaders. 

Dupanloup received a severe check, at the time that he 
endeavored to bring about a fusion of Legitimists and Or- 
leanists, from the same Comte de Chambord, who in 
childhood had been his faithful and devoted pupil. He 
wrote and talked much on this subject ; he went at the 
work with the whole strength of his mighty will ; but 
Chambord resisted, and at last resented all efforts to induce 
him to abandon the Legitimist flag. After Dupanloup 
had made the most earnest and long-continued endeavors 
to consolidate the parties, Chambord wrote a letter to 
" Monsieur the Bishop," in which he very coolly and de- 
cidedly said that he could not follow the counsels of his 
old tutor. "I have neither sacrifices to make, nor con- 
ditions to accept," wrote Chambord, in a lofty and final 
manner, which convinced Dupanloup that he was not in- 
tended for the role he had undertaken, and led him to 
give up in despair the task of reconciliation. It is said 
by careful political critics, that this rebuff which Dupanloup 
suffered rather soured his temper, and that since that time 
he has been more than ever fond of gloomy foreboding. 

A good story is told of an interview between certain 
members of the Assembly, while the movement led by Du- 
panloup and others, for a fusion, was in progress ; and 



MONSEIGNEUR DUPANLOUP. 131 

the story serves to illustrate how futile were the struggles to 
get a common accord. A duke, a count, and a simple 
plebeian, all Legitimist deputies, were overheard in the fol- 
lowing conversation, in a corridor of the palace at Ver- 
sailles, shortly after the appearance of the Comte de Cham- 
bord's manifesto. 

" As for myself, gentlemen, " said the duke, " with one 
or two exceptions, I adhere completely to the mani- 
festo. " 

"I," said the count, " also have a number of reserva- 
tions to make, but my adhesion is not at all doubtful." 

The plebeian added. "You all know what my excep- 
tions are, but, with those allowed for, I am in accord with 
you." 

" Hum ! " said the duke, "don't you think, gentlemen, 
that an accord in which every one has reservations and ex- 
ceptions to make, is very much like a disagreement ? " 
All then laughed, and had Dupanloup been there, he 
would have joined in the laughter. 

The archbishop has made a good many violent speeches 
against the mi^tary spirit which he thinks is gradually in- 
vading and corrupting France ; and has occasioned the 
government no little trouble by continually demanding ex- 
ceptions to the recruiting laws. He is dreaded in the tri- 
bune, because he has a sharp way of saying unpleasant 
things, which makes the proudest and most conceited 
ministry wince. 

When the history of the debates on the education ques- 
tion in France is written, Dupanloup will have a promi- 
nent place in it. He will be as conspicuous a figure in any 
review" of the beginnings of the Third Republic as. will 



1,32 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

Thiers or Gambetta. He began his campaign against 
real and extensive progress by combating, with indomita- 
ble courage and almost superhuman intrigue, all the en- 
deavors of Jules Simon, and other liberals like him, to 
obtain gratuitous and obligatory primary education. While 
Simon was Minister of Public Instruction, Dupanloup 
followed him persistently with "interpellations;" fought 
him step by step, and continued the battle outside the As- 
sembly. He even counseled the directors of seminaries 
in his diocese not to take any notice in their teachings of 
Simon's famous circular concerning secondary instruction, 
whose adoption, Dupanloup alleged, "would be the ruin 
of the humanities, and the definite overturn of high intel- 
lectual education in France." * "Cling," he wrote to the 
directors, " cling to the basis, the form, and the methods 
of teaching which gave to France and to the Church, Bos- 
suet, Fenelon, Bourdaloue, Massillon, and the seventeenth 
century. The fathers of families will thank you for it, the 
Church will bless you, and the country will, not count you 
among the number of its unworthy servants." Dupanloup 
is a member of the Superior Council of Public Instruction, 
and, after the overthrow of Thiers, in 1873, he succeeded 
in securing the suppression of many reforms which Jules 
Simon had endeavored to introduce into various institu- 
tions of learning. 

Monseigneur Dupanloup felt, from the very first mo- 
ment that the law on the liberty of superior education was 
brought under discussion in the Assembly, that the Church 
were sure to gain as many advantages as the State from 

* Jules Clere, Biography of Dupanloup. 



MONSEIGNEUR DUPANLOUP. 133 

any law that might be passed. He is too intelligent a man 
to believe that the Church can ever regain the full meas- 
ure of monopoly which she once possessed in educational 
matters ; he did not, nor does he now, desire that, but he 
still wishes the Church to have a guiding influence in in- 
struction. He is almost venomous in the force with which 
he fights those extreme republicans who can think of noth- 
ing better than a substitution of the tyranny of the State 
for that of the Church. There have been times when he 
seemed almost ready j;o compromise with the moderate 
republicans ; but, at the very moment when the compro- 
mise appeared accomplished, he drew back coldly and 
haughtily. The robe seemed to shut him out from con- 
tact with the liberty-seeking civilians. He became entirely 
a priest, and could not be called a citizen. He did not 
care to prevent the free founding of universities, because he 
felt that the Church could, on that ground, meet and grap- 
ple with the laity, and could always vanquish the latter. 
But he felt anxious to hinder the free speech which would 
come with a removal of the restrictions on lecture courses 
and public assemblies generally; and against such re- 
moval he directed his whole talent in objections. Probing 
his real thought, one would doubtless find that Dupan- 
loup believes that the Church deserves, although she can- 
not secure, her ancient supremacy in instruction ; that the 
Catholic Church is the grand reservoir of science ; that the 
clergy have made all the great discoveries ; that, as he once 
said, " The revolution made France a desert, so far as in- 
struction is concerned ; " and that, again to quote his own 
words, "entire liberty of teaching would be a piece of de- 
testable sophistry." 



134 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

There were some stormy debates in which Dupanloup 
seemed choked with excitement and anger, whenever 
education was discussed. Before describing the prelate as 
he appeared when taking a part in these discussions, let 
me quote a French writer's description of his personal ap- 
pearance : 

"During some of the coldest days of winter, one now 
and then is astonished to see promenading in those broad 
avenues of Versailles where all the winds gallop unchained, 
a septuagenarian priest, clad in an old and much-worn 
robe like that of a country curate, having his face painted 
by the wind, and his hat in his hand. All the blasts of the 
North Pole might blow upon him without compelling him 
to put his hat on, and the stinging breezes which would 
make a Lapland bear shiver under his fur, would lose 
their labor on that ever rosy brow. 

"The priest is Monseigneur Dupanloup. 

" It seems, as one looks at the enthusiastic prelate, as 
if his blood were always in ebullition ; as if his congested 
head were likely to explode like a surcharged boiler, and 
as if he did not wear his hat, because he wished to keep 
the safety-blowpipe handy to the air. One can fancy that 
one sees oozing around his few white hairs an ardent vapor 
of mystic anger. His cheeks always shine with purple, as 
if he wished to bear upon his visage, as a consolation, that 
color so obstinately refused to his hat. 

" The features are proud and noble, but of a character 
only moderately evangelical ; the nose is like an eagle's 
beak ; the chin bony and prominent as the rostrum ot an 
antique galley ; abrupt cheek-bones ; two hard black and 
piercing eye-balls; and- lastl}', something so irritated in 



MONSEIGNEUR DUPANLOUP. I 35 

the expression of the mouth, in the contraction of the eye- 
brows, and in all the lines of the face, that the whole ritual 
of excommunication seems written in. the labyrinth of 
wrinkles. 

"This is the indefatigable prelate whose sacred zeal has 
boiled over like burning lava for fifty years, the episcopal 
volcano which has cast out, during its half century of erup- 
tion, enough commands, homilies, sermons, heavy trea- 
tises, and small pamphlets, to bury up a new Hercu- 
laneum. " / 

In December of 1874, Dupanloup, M. Challeme^'' ^ 
Lacour, M. Laboulaye, and many other distinguished 
advocates of various projects of laws concerning the regula- 
tion of instruction, and the right of free speech, made 
important addresses in the Assembly, Challemet-Lacour 
is a man of wonderfully forcible eloquence. The elegance 
of his language and the precision of his thought were 
never more ably brought to bear than in his December 
speech, when he spoke against Dupanloup's role with re- 
gard to educational law. He denounced the pretensions 
of the Catholic Church, and accused it of boldly endeavor- 
ing to stifle and throttle the spirit of modern progress ; 
and he declared that Catholicism sought rather to create 
apostles in all the professions than to give men honest and 
broad instruction for liberal careers. Challemet-Lacour is 
a good representative of the secular party which was so 
earnest in its defense of the University and the State 
against clerical encroachments in Louis Philippe's time ; 
and he thoroughly analyzed and exposed a policy 
with which he has been familiar for a generation. He 
did it with grace, finish, and mayhap a little spite, 



136 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

and when he had finished, the Assembly was fairly con- 
vulsed. 

Dupanloup responded the next day. He seemed some- 
what ill at ease ; the tribune in the noisy Assembly was 
not like the carved pulpit in the splendid cathedral to 
which Monseigneur is accustomed ; and there was more 
irreverence among the buzzing and impatient deputies 
than the bishop was wont to notice among the trembling 
faithful in the sanctuary. But ' ' the old man eloquent " 
showed all his well-known characteristics ; his perfectly 
uncontrollable ang^r appeared to run in little wavelets 
through his limbs and across his perturbed face ; he closed 
his hands tightly, and frowned desperately ; his whole 
attitude was menacing. There were moments when he 
condescended to nothing but denunciation of those who 
had openly attacked the Church ; he seemed so surprised 
that he could hardly answer and try to refute. He at last 
laid aside any remarks on politics and the education bill, 
and accused M. Challemet-Lacour of having pointed him 
out as fit prey for the musket-balls of the Communists of 
some approaching revolution. In other words, Dupan-' 
loup insisted that Challemet-Lacour had hinted at assassi- 
nation. The latter would probably have called to account 
any civilian who had made use of such wild language. 
As it was, he simply went into the tribune as soon as Du- 
panloup left it, and said : 

' ' The character with which Monseigneur is clothed, the 
robe which he wears, and of which he has taken the 
trouble to speak, forbid me to respond as I might to the 
comments which he has made upon my discourse. I sub- 
mit his attacks to the judgment of all honest men in 



MQNSEIGNEUR DUPANLOUP. I37 

this Assembly ; to the judgment of sensible men every- 
where ; to the judgment of every person who has any 
regard for the dignity of'the Episcopate. " 

Dupanloup was certainly placed at a disadvantage in 
this discussion ; but there was a majesty in his choler, a 
kind of divine inspiration in his tempestuous rages, making 
him thrilling and impressive. Probably the best work 
which the bishop did for the Catholic cause in fighting the 
liberals on the education bills was accomplished in the 
committee room, where.his rare powers were always ad- 
vantageously manifested. The privileges obtained by the 
Catholics under the Republic are certainly due in large 
degree to Dupanloup's presence at Versailles as a deputy. 

As a bishop, Dupanloup is austere, laborious, char- 
itable to a fault to the poor, and self-sacrificing in a hun- 
dred ways. He loves splendor in his cathedral^ believes 
in the ceremonials and processions, many of which have 
been done away with in modern France, and would re- 
store them if he could. A superb preacher, it is some- 
what astonishing that he has not more command of him- 
self in the tribune. He is a morning worker, like M. 
Thiers, and rising at four, sometimes finishes before his 
modest breakfast a sermon, a treatise or two, and a vast 
pile of private correspondence. He believes in touching the 
human heart by simple means. He it was who received 
Talleyrand's death-bed confession, bringing the old diplo- 
mat, by the intervention of a little child to consent to re- 
ceive a priest at his bedside. He is as impulsive in chaiity 
as in everything else, and Murray tells us that the bishop 
once pledged his pastoral staff to a beggar because he hap- 
pened just then to have nothing else to give. He has a 



138 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

host of secretaries, and works them hard ; abhors luxury 
at table or in his apartments, takes long walks alone 
through woods and by stream, and in the forests gathers 
force for his battles. He likes such disputes as he has 
had with Veuillot, About, Littre, Simon, and others. 
Were he at the stake, he would give his enemies a parting 
anathema better than any fires they could build under him. 
The Germans winced terribly beneath the reproof which he 
gave them when they imprisoned him, during the occupa- 
tion of Orleans, in his Episcopal palace. He likes Thiers, 
objects to Gambetta, and has nothing but contempt for the 
Bonapartist intrigues now in progress. His presentiments 
are sometimes remarkable. He said of Verger, a boy who 
was at school under him, but who grew up to assassinate 
the Archbishop of Paris : " That boy frightens me." He 
thinks France lost unless a new political savior shall arise. 
In one of his pastoral letters he speaks of his adversaries 
as "strange and violent pygmies, for whom nothing is sa- 
cred." As to his doctrine of a savior, he has somewhere 
expressed it as follows : 

"Alas! France still awaits a great soul to save her ; 
sometimes she fancies that she sees it resplendent in the 
horizon of the future and of her destinies. She believes and 
yields herself entirely to it, then suddenly she perceives 
that she has saluted only a deceitful will-o'-the-wisp." 

Dupanloup was decorated with the Legion of Honor in 
1850, but he cares but little for such small dignities. He 
likes a good rating from an enemy better than a compli- 
ment or a present from a friend. He did not hesitate to 
point out the " palpable absurdities" of the famous circu- 
lar called "The Pope and the Congress," which was sup- 



MONSEiGNEUR DUPANLOUP. I 39 

posed to have been written by Napoleon III. himself. 
He rejoiced when he was decreed against in a Paris court 
because it was shown that he had used unduly harsh lan- 
guage about both the editors of the Siecle and his prede- 
cessor on the Episcopal bench of Orleans. As an author 
he will be best remembered — altliough he has written and 
published a vast deal-^by his work on "Education," first 
given to the world in 1855-57. 




Jules Grew. 




HE presidency of a French legislative assembly is 
by no means a sinecure. It is, on the contrary, 
a difficult and dangerous post, where a man mo- 
mentarily runs risks of ruining his reputation ; where he 
must maintain a constant attitude of impartiality, as well 
as firmness and decision, which invariably make him ene- 
mies. It is generally conceded that M. Jules Grevy, who 
was President of the National Assembly from the time of 
its meeting at Bordeaux, in February, 1871, until the 
election of M. Buffet, in April, 1873, did his work with 
much more grace and success than usually falls to the lot 
of those who occupy the exalted position. A man of 
dignified and substantial presence, magisterial in mien, 
and absolutely faultless in knowledge of parliamentary 
law, he stayed many storms which might have proved dis- 
astrous, and allayed the bitterness of partisan feeling no 
little. In those mad days, just after the war, when Re- 
publicans and Imperialists were in constant danger of 
coming to blows, M. Grevy's mallet was wielded and his 



JULES GREVY. I4I 

bell was never rung in vain. There was an inexorable air 
about the man which frightened even the noisiest and most 
unreasonable of rurals or radicals into befitting silence. 

Jules Grevy is nearly seventy years of age, yet is still 
hale, and his face has all the freshness of youth. He was 
born in the Jura at Mont-Sous- Vaudrez, of humble but 
well-to-do parents, who were engaged in agriculture ; and 
he was brought up in the sternest and purest manners, 
and nourished with coarse food and keen mountain 'air. 
His father sent him to college at Poligny, where the youth 
made rapid progress. Young Grevy was laborious and 
energetic ; but he possessed little imagination, and gave 
no especial promise of brilliancy. He graduated, how- 
ever, with honors, and went up to Paris to study law. 
Just as he had finished his three years' course, the Revolu- 
tion of 1830 broke out. Grevy was then twenty-one ; he 
took down/rom the wall an old musket which he had been 
wont to look at when he had vague revolutionary ideas, 
and went out to fight. He had an important part in the 
storming of the Babylon barracks, one of the great epi- 
sodes of the revolution. During the whole fight he was 
in the front ranks of the assaila^nts. As soon as peace was 
restored, he went into a lawyer's office, where he remained 
nearly eight years. He began to be famous ; had a great 
many -political cases to try, and sometimes pleaded them 
before the Court of Assizes, or even in the Chamber of 
Peers.- A lawyer who defended any one persecuted for his 
opinions, was, in those days, made a demi-god of by the 
opposition press. The courts were thronged with literary 
men, artists, and the leaders of society, and Grevy had 
only to plead one or two cases to secure notoriety. He 



142 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

was vigorous in speech ; plain almost to boldness in his 
periods ; never betrayed into any of the redundancies of 
youth. He had too much respect for himself to plead for 
charlatans, and the journalist or liberal who came to him 
for defense had to prove that his motives were honest and 
his conscience was clear, before Grevy accepted him as 
client. 

Although these suits gave reputation, they did not give 
much money, nor, indeed, did they improve the advo- 
cate's social position; and in 1848 M. Grevy was still in 
the third rank as a lawyer, and gave lessons in law prac- 
tice in order to eke out his modest income. He was par- 
ticularly fond of legal study, and was recognized as a 
specialist of some promise. When the Republic was 
founded, Ledru Rollin sent M. Grevy as commissioner 
into the Jura, among his old friends and acquaintances. 
He was at first received coldly, but soon made himself 
popular by his moderation, and after doing the Republic 
great service, was sent to the National Assembly by sixty- 
five thousand one hundred and fifty votes. The farmers 
and squires of the country round were proud of their 
"Monsieur Jules," as they called him. He at once 
seated himself with the Left, and voted with it for the ban- 
ishment of the Orleans family, for the abolition of capital 
punishment, and various other important measures. When- 
ever the Left showed a tendency toward Socialism, M. 
Grevy never followed it, but he was always distinguished 
by moderation as well as firmness, in his speeches. He 
was at that time often compared to Dufaure, and Grevy 's 
friends are to-day fond of discovering analogies between 
the oratorical talent of the two men. 



JULES GREW. 143 

M. Grevy owes his principal celebrity to the noted 
amendment which bears his name. The Left did not 
wish, in 1848, that the Republic should have a president 
elected by the people. ' ' They foresaw, " in the words of 
I one of M. Grevy 's most intimate friends, "the inevitable 
conflict which would one day rise, and the force which a 
chief of power deriving his authority from universal suf- 
frage would have against the Chamber." Instead of the 
president named by the people, the members of the Left 
wished a "president of the council " named by the Cham- 
ber, and directly under its control. A violent discussion 
arose over the article of the Constitution delegating the 
executive power to a president elected for four years by 
universal suffrage. At this juncture, M. « Grevy offered 
his amendment, which authorized the National Assembly 
to delegate the executive power to a citizen who should be 
called the "president of the council of ministers." This 
amendment was offered simply because Grevy severely mis- 
trusted both Cavaignac and Louis Napoleon, and wished 
to bind them so that they could be removed at any time 
the Chamber saw fit. The amendment was lost by six 
hundred and forty-three votes to one hundred and fifty- 
eight ; had it been adopted, Louis Napoleon's game would 
have been blocked, and France would have been spared a 
score of years of shame and misrule. Grevy was vice- 
president of the Assembly and a member of the committee 
of justice at the time he offered the amendment. 

Of course he was exiled from political life as soon as the 
coup d'etat occurred, and went back to his law-books. 
He had comparatively little business, and suffered in si- 
lence, as did so many others, until August, 1868, when 



144 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

he presented himself once more as a candidate in the 
Jura department. His nomination could hardly be con- 
sidered otherwise than as an energetic protest against the 
Empire, and when Grevy was elected by twenty-three thou- 
sand votes, there was considerable consternation at the 
Tuileries. In the Corps Legislatif of the Empire, Grevy 
was as moderate as he had been in the Assembly of 1848; 
but he was full* of energy, and grouped solidly around 
him all those independent men who were anxious to give 
their country liberty once more. 

Grevy protested, as did so many others of his colleagues, 
against the forcible dissolution of the Corps Legislatif- on 
the 4th of September, 1870, the date of the declaration of 
the present Republic, but he protested simply because his 
principles compelled him to respect the national represen- 
tation. He was not sorry to see the dissolution of the 
body which had been made the instrument of so much 
oppression. He rendered himself unpopular with the 
liberals by refusing to vote for the return of the Orleans 
princes, in 1870, as well as by his above-mentioned pro- 
test against the dissolution of the Corps Legislatif Dur- 
ing the war he kept free from intrigue, but was always an 
opponent of Gambetta, whose dictatorial ways he disliked 
exceedingly. 

Sent back to the Assembly a third time from the Jura in 
1871, when the legislators were convoked to decide the 
fate of France after her struggle with Prussia, M. Grevy 
was almost unanimously chosen president. He was finally 
thrown out of office by the machinations of the Right, 
whose members had no real cause for grievance against 
him, but were tired of hearing Aristides always called the 



JULES GREW. 145 

Just. Shortly before Grevy had definitely decided to offer 
his resignation, a curious incident occurred which has- 
tened his decision. A member of the Republican Left, in 
discussing a report presented from a committee by a mem- 
ber of the Right, made use of the phrase, "And that is 
the committee's baggage," as he summed up the principal 
points. A roar arose from the members of the Right, and 
the republican speaker hastened to explain that he had not 
used the word baggage in a contemptuous sense. The 
committee did not consider itself injured, but a noisy 
group on the Right continued to protest against the word, 
and the Due de Grammont finally rose in great excite- 
ment, and, gesticulating violently, cried out, "It is an 
impertinence ! " Upon this the glacial Grevy called the 
noble duke to order, whereupon the noble duke grew 
very angry, and menaced with his fists the deputy in the 
tribune, the president's desk, and everything else. The 
Right protested against the call to order ; but M. Grevy 
maintained it, and at the same time offered his resignation 
in a courtly and dignified speech, which thoroughly 
shamed the boisterous members of the Right. Not wish- 
ing to accept at once, the Right managed to have a new 
ballot for president, and M. Grevy found himself re-elected; 
but he maintained his resignation, and on the 4th of 
April M. Buffet was elected in his stead. 

The ex-president has done much good work in the 
Assembly as a humble member, and is universally re- 
spected. Personally, Grevy is of medium height, stoutly 
built, with a large head, whose baldness shows to excellent 
advantage its fine shape. At a distance, seeing him seated 
in the chair of office, one might fancy him a man of fifty, 
7 



146 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

rather than one on the verge of the period allotted to hu- 
manity. He is in no sense a society man ; and after he 
has labored seven or eight hours intensely, his pet amuse- 
ment is a party of dominoes or billiards with a few friends 
in a quiet cafe. 



Edouard Laboulaye. 




ijOR twenty-five years Edouard Laboulaye has been 
the firm friend of America, and has done more 
than any other Hving man to enlighten European 
populations concerning the United States. The salient 
points of American history, popularized by him, are more 
thoroughly known to-day in France than in England. The 
doctrines of Channing, translated by Laboulaye, have done 
infinite good, not only in France but in Italy and Spain. 
Castelar, profoundly as he may stir the Spanish spirit, has 
struck no deeper chord therein than has Laboulaye. In 
the co-operative societies of Naples, in the secret re-unions 
of the toilers in the mountains of Spain, and among the 
great multitude of blue-bloused laborers who report to the 
Syndical Chamber of Paris, Laboulaye's name has been 
heard oftener than that of dozens of more pretentious men 
for many years. He has had the courage since he has 
been in the Assembly to make numerous protests against 
the law on the International Society of Workmen. When 
Rochefort seemed for a short time to be the man of the 
9 



148 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

situation, it was really Laboulaye. His influence went 
deeper than that of many more famous men, has lasted 
longer, and will endure forever. 

Laboulaye's friendship for the people of the United 
States once led some poor patriotic Frenchmen to call 
him the " Americo-maniac." He wore the title gracefully, 
and seemed rather proud of it. In conversation with the 
writer shortly before the Franco-Prussian war, M. Labou- 
laye mentioned that at one period he found himself mak- 
ing such constant allusion to America and its people, that 
he feared it might weary his hearers. " But," he contin- 
ued, "they always deprecated my excuses. Some of 
my friends liked to annoy me, however. One day — it was 
during the civil war in the United States — -I was lecturing 
before quite a distinguished audience, when two beautiful 
bouquets, accompanied by a note, were laid upon the 
desk ; some of my friends, with a French sense of fun, 
smiled broadly as I read the note. By-and-by one laughed; 
presently others followed the example. I stopped reading 
my lecture, and asked, ' Why do you laugh .? ' whereupon 
(nearly all of them were friends and acquaintances) they 
laughed the more. * ' But, ' said I, ' you do not understand 
the sense of the gift.' More uproarious laughter still ; so I 
read them the following words, which had profoundly 
stirred my heart ; ' From two young American ladies, who 
desire to testify their affection for the man who has the 
courage to defend their country when it is in trouble.' 
The audience was silent for a moment, and then there 
was loud and long and glorious applause." 

It is difficult to understand that M. Laboulaye has never 
been in America. Every one remembers that queer book, 



EDOUARD LABOULAYE. I49 

''Paris en Amerique, " which he wrote as a trifle. Its suc- 
cess was more startling to him than to the world ; it has 
been translated into nearly every modern language. 
Twenty-four editions have been demanded in France ; the 
modern Greek, the Turk, the Servian, the Bohemian, all 
have their translations. I once saw in Laboulaye's li- 
brary many of the reprints sent him of " Paris en Ame- 
rique," with the autographs of presidents of liberal societies 
in them,' and the letters thanking him for his pictures of 
America. One of his friends, who saw the book in man- 
uscript, reproved him for wasting his time upon such a 
trifle, little imagining that it would make its author im- 
mortal. 

In his library M. Laboulaye has a large, heavily-bound 
volume, printed in antique type, which he now and then 
shows to such legislators as are inclined to scout the idea 
of the value of American example in founding the Repub- 
lic in France. Th,e volume contains the Constitutions of 
the different original States of the Arnerican Union. 
"If," said he on one occasion to an American visitor, 
''you should compare our Constitution of 1793 with this 
book you would see that we borrowed not only your ideas, 
but transferred the text thereof, even into our revolutionary 
instrument. It is the spirit of those immortal Constitu- 
tion-makers in America which agitates France to-day." In 
his "Popular Lectures" there are able and appreciative 
reviews of the lives of Abraham Lincoln, of Garrison, 
of Franklin, of Elihu Burritt, of Horace Mann, and a 
dozen other prominent Americans. On one occasion, in 
the winter of 1870, when he was delivering a lecture at 
the College de France on Horace Mann, a voice in the 



150 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES, 

audience said, ''Hum; there's Laboulaye ; he's forever 
tallving about America." Upon this, Laboulaye defended 
himself, but acknowledged that he used America as his 
chief text, and told the audience that he should continue 
so to do, the Lord willing, for many years. In the words 
"with which he closed that memorable lecture on Mann, he 
has admirably pictured his own character. He said : ^ 

"There are men who are all upon the surface, who 
dazzle, who charm for a moment ; but if one looks into 
their egotistic souls, he finds only a repulsive spectacle. 
There are others who, on the contrary, have taken for 
their mission the redemption, the elevation of humanity, 
not by grand phrases, but by acts. They take the child 
in the street and say to him, ' You have an immortal 
soul to form, to develop.' They redeem whole nations 
from ignorance and misery. Such a one was Horace 
Mann." 

Elsewhere, in discussing the subject of education, he 
has said. " Whqn a real community of ideas and senti- 
ments becomes established among us, we shall have realized 
the grand idea of our fathers, equality ! and that equality, 
to call it by its true name, is fraternity ! " 

Intensely interested in the progress of the working class 
es, and in the struggle for enlarged liberty of education, 
Laboulaye threw himself with much energy into the work 
for which he seemed best fitted, when, in 1871, he entered 
the Assembly as a deputy from the department of the 
Seine. He was not looked upon with any favor by the 
extremists in the republican party, because it was generally 
understood that he had voted for the last plebiscite pro- 
posed by the emperor in 1870. He was by no means a 



EDOUARD LABOULAYE. 15I 

monarchist, but he was certainly an intelligent, moderate, 
and sensible liberal. He was anxious to see many reforms 
inaugurated, but he had a supreme contempt for the 
tempestuous and revolutionar}^ measures proposed by ultra- 
radicals. He was at first listened to on all sides with some 
disdain ; but he wounded no sensibilities, made few, if 
any enemies, and had a wonderful ability for plain and 
simple speech, which at last gained him a respectful hear- 
ing. Day by day he grew in strength, until he became 
what he is to-day — a leading member of the Assembly, 
and a French leader in every sense of the word. He was 
listened to all the more attentively by monarchists of every 
stripe, because he was recognized as an enemy of the ex- 
tremists of the Left. He had no faith in the capacity of 
the radicals to agree, and made no secret of his incredulity. 
He had had a practical illustration of this lack of agree- 
ment, in 1849, when Lamartine, to quote Laboulaye's 
words : " came to him, full of fiery enthusiasm, and said : 
' The Provisional Government wishes thee to go to Frank- 
fort as its minister, wilt go? ' I hesitated, because I felt 
that I must probably go at my own expense, and made 
some inquiries. However, Lamartine named a salary. 
Could I have served them I would gladly have done 
it, but I asked Lamartine, 'what does Ledru Rollin say 
about my appointment ? ' 'Ledru Rollin is an imbecile, 
mo7i cher, and I haven't consulted him. What does he 
know about such matters .? I shall consult with him, 
nevertheless.' But when he consulted with him, it was 
very much as I had imagined. Ledru Rollin judged me 
very much as Lamartine judged him ; and I was spared 
the pleasure, or the pain, of journeying to Frankfort. But 



152 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

fancy that Lamartine had not thought to consult his asso- 
ciates ! " 

Some wicked tongues say, even nowadays, that La- 
boulaye's earnestness in sustaining the plehiscih offered 
by the emperor in 1870, was the price the writer paid for 
the advancement of his son in diplomatic rank. It is 
unnecessary to inform any one who knows Laboulaye per- 
sonally, that this is a calumny. He, like so many other 
thoughtful Frenchmen, saw the dangers of the revolution 
into which Paris would be plunged, as soon as the Empire 
should fall ; and therefore did all that he could to en- 
courage liberal measures on the part of a government 
which seemed likely to remain in power, and which was cer- 
tainly better than a monarchy. He was twice, in 1857 and 
in 1869, an unsuccessful candidate for a place in the Corps 
Legislatif, where he might have done much good as a 
"moderate," although either the fiery Gambetta or the 
wavering Rochefort would probably have far outshone 
him in popular favor at that time. 

The two subjects upon which M. Laboulaye"s experi- 
ence and power have been most clearly illustrated, and 
oftenest called into use, are the organization of the public 
powers, and the liberty of the higher grades of education. 
As he had been a professor of comparative legislation since 
1849, had written numerous excellent works on jurispru- 
dence, and had carefully analyzed constitutional law, un- 
til he was capable of framing a model constitution, without 
aid from any one else, he astonished his fellow-deputies 
by the rich stores of his thought ; sometimes when they 
paused, mute and helpless, before an obstacle which to 
them seemed to shut out all light, his luminous exposition 



EDOUARD LABOULAYE. I 53 

of some adroit manner of securing success, won universal 
admiration. He was a good fighter, but never lost ground 
from inability to conciliate. When he was absolutely sure 
of his point, no man was more fearless, frank, and out- 
spoken ; but he would never condescend to risk the loss of 
all the liberties he sought to obtain by an undue refusal to 
compromise. He was among the first to recognize the 
fact that much of the opposition shown by the clergy and 
the monarchists to certain needed reforms was the fruit 
of both jealousy and fear. So he came boldly forward 
saying, '• We do not ask you to give up your rights, we 
only wish to increase them, to add to them new ones, and 
to share them with you. We are not, on the whole, so 
anxious to secure a Republic that we are willing to do in- 
justice to any one ; let us reason together." In his strug- 
gles for a more enlightened legislation on educational 
privileges, he always recognized the fact that nothing was 
to be gained by persecuting and condemning Holy Church 
in a country where since 1870 there has been a great re- 
ligious revival. Thanks to him, the Church has been led 
into concessions which no loud-mouthed Jacobin, or un- 
compromising enthusiast could ever have won from her. 

Those people who could not see that M. Laboulaye had 
been from the beginning of his literary career a representa- 
tive of the best type of moderate republicans, were at a 
loss where to place him as they noted his attitude in the 
Assembly ; and so they called him an Orleanist. But in 
his remarkable address on the " Organization of the Pub- 
lic Powers," delivered on the 29th of January, 1875, in 
the tribune of the Assembly at Versailles, M. Laboulaye 
made himself understood. " Here is the Republic at 



154 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

your doors," was the%ubstance of his speech, "you must 
let it in. There is no way of evading the acknowledgment 
that we are living under a Republican government. And 
let us say so frankly." This speech provoked a storm ; 
Orleanists, Legitimists, and Imperialists roared, inter- 
rupted, menaced ; and finished by recognizing, in their 
innermost hearts, that M. Laboulaye spoke the truth. 
When he said to the Assembly, "You can make a gov- 
ernment with the Republic ; but, if you do not accept 
this, you can make no government at all," he did more to 
bring about the substantial and desirable results of the 
25th of February following — the recognition of a Republic 
and the domain of constitutional law — than had been ac- 
complished in many months before. 

M. Laboulaye was the reporter of the commission 
charged, in 1873, with examining General Changarnier's 
project for confiding the executive power to Marshal Mac- 
Mahon for ten years. He took occasion, in his report, to 
denounce the efforts made by numerous factions to avoid 
the organization of a constitutional government. " If/ 
he said, " the conservative party does not wish to organize 
free institutions with us ; if it ofi'ers us only a provisory 
regime of. ten years, only an isolated power, neither 
bounded nor maintained by constitutional laws, there will 
be nothing left for us but to resign to the nation the mis- 
sion which it has confided to us. . . . But, if we can 
agree ; if the name of the Marshal is to serve as the guar- 
antee of a bargain, if you vote the organic laws, the coun- 
try may, perhaps, come back one day to the constitutional 
government which has more than once been the source of 
our grandeur and prosperity. Then we shall enter into 



EDOUARD LABOULAYE. 155 

full possession of liberty ; we shall be able to discuss in 
peace, and to agree upon these great questions of educa- 
tion, public works, and material, intellectual, and moral 
improvements, which certainly have as much interest for 
the people as the nomination of a President." After 
the establishment of the " Septennate," Laboulaye worked 
earnestly at the creation of Republican sentiment, defend- 
ed the Republic against the charges of hostility to the 
Church, to marriage, and to property ; reproved those 
who wished to establish the tyranny of the State in place of 
that of a despot. "What, then," he cried, in his great 
January speech, "is the objection to the Republic, if it 
menaces neither property, family, nor religion? Join with 
us in building it up.- We do not ask you for the Repub- 
lic of the Constitution of 1793 — a constitution whose 
great fault was that it could never be applied; — we ask 
you for a Republic with two Chambers, with a President, 
with institutions which you understand perfectly." 

No man has ever placed more forcibly before the French 
people the necessity of absolute freedom of education than 
has M. Laboulaye. He has not always received thanks, 
for the French have so long been used to repressive laws 
that they sometimes express a dread of their repeal. 

Laboulaye was active among the working classes when 
the Empire was in power. He instructed them in co- 
operative schemes, and is still largely interested in the 
management of several excellent libraries for the working 
classes. He was a wise counselor for the masses, and had 
there been more like him, the Communal insurrection 
might never have occurred. "A nation," he said to the 
toilers, "to whom one gives back liberty, is like a sick 



156 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

man who has been shut in the house a ,long time, and who 
is at last exposed to the outer air. The first day he is 
giddy ; the second he breathes more freely ; the third he 
feels himself revivified, reanimated by the new life and 
light." "Educate yourselves," he was perpetually saying 
to the working people, "educate yourselves, and then you 
will be ready for politics." ' 

As reporter of the Commission on the Liberty of Higher 
Education, M. Laboulaye has written and spoken much 
of late. "We have done," he says, "with the ideal 
monarchy which saw in the prince the father of a family, 
regulating the education of his children at his will ; we re- 
ject the antique conception taken up anew by the Revolu- 
tion, making the citizen the slave an"d the thing of the 
Republic ; we do not now admit that the establishment of 
a University should be, as the First Napoleon said, a 
means of directing political and moral opinions. We no 
longer ask from the government anything save guarantees 
for general security and private' liberty ; we refuse to allow 
it to substitute itself for the family and the individual. It 
is this change of ideas which renders a change of institu- 
tions necessary." Laboulaye is firmly convinced that the 
members ■ of the clergy, although professing to be pro- 
foundly shocked by the changes proposed, recognize their 
necessity, and can be brought to understand that liberty 
for all is the only sure means of guaranteeing liberty to the 
individual and the class. 

Edouard Rene-Lefevre Laboulaye was born in Paris, 
January 18, 181 1. He studied law there, and first made 
himself known by a work entitled "History of the Law 
Relative to Landed Property in Europe, from the Time of 



EDOUARD LABOULAYE. I 57 

Constantine to our Own Days." This treatise was crowned 
by the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres, and 
its author, at that time a type-founder, although not allow- 
ing business to interfere with professional studies, at once 
won a wide fame. Laboulaye next published an "Essay 
on the Life and Doctrines of Frederic Charles de Savigny; " 
this was in 1842, and in the same year he became an ad- 
vocate at the Cour Royale of Paris. During several ensu- 
ing years, he published in rapid succession the "Studies 
on the Civil and Political Condition of Women, from the 
Days of the Romans until our Own Times, " a work 
crowned by the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences ; 
an Essay on the Criminal Laws of the Romans, concern- 
ing the Responsibility of Magistrates, a volume which 
secured his admission to the Academy of Liscriptions and 
Belles Lettres. After he took his place, in 1849, as Pro- 
fessor of Comparative Legislation, at the College de France, 
he turned his attention both toward journalism, and the 
study of the institutions of America. He wrote a "Politi- 
cal History of the United States, from the first attempts at 
Colonization, up to the Adoption of the Federal Constitu- 
tion, 1620-1789;" " Studies in Literary Property in France 
and England ; " edited most of Channing's works, and 
prefaced them with interesting essays on his life and 
character. When he edited Channing's "Slavery," he 
preceded it with an acute and polished essay on the crucial 
question, which did the cause of abolition infinite good in 
Europe. His minor works, growing out of his legal 
studies, are almost too numerous to mention. He has 
been a constant contributor to the "Review of Legislation 
and Jurisprudence " for many years ; was one of the direc- 



158 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

tors of the " Historical Review of French Law," and wrote 
in the Debuts and in the Revue Germanique. M, Laboulaye 
was, before the war, a yearly visitor to Germany, where he 
was, and still is, very highly esteemed. His acquaintance 
there was very extensive, and he is to-day one of the few 
Frenchmen who really understand the German character. 
In 1855, he published "Contemporary Studies in Ger- 
many and the Slavic Countries;" in 1856, "Religious 
Liberty;" and in 1857 and 1859, various volumes and 
romances of travel. 

Laboulaye wrote as earnestly for the cause of freedom in 
the Journal des Dibats as in his own books. One day 
during the American civil war-, he arrived at the editorial 
room with an article in favor of the Northern States in his 
pocket, only to find that Sertoli, the director, had allowed 
one written in the interests of the slaveholders to be put 
into type. Laboulaye at once obtained an interview with 
the director, and urged him to adhere to the honest course 
which had been marked out in former numbers of the 
journal, despite the fact tha-t prevailing opinion was very 
hostile to the North. He succeeded, and the North re- 
tained an ally, which, if transformed into an enemy, might 
have done much harm to the Union arms. 

He is a hale and extremely well-preserved man, of 
scholarly aspect ; his shoulders are slightly bowed by the 
habits of long bending over his books ; his abundant hair 
is tinged with gray. He is always scrupulously simple in 
his dress, and his black frock coat, buttoned to the chin, 
gives him an almost clerical appearance. In summer, 
and during the sessions of the Assembly, he lives at 
Glatigny, a pleasant suburb of Versailles, in his own coun- 



EDOUARD LABOULAYE. 1 59 

tr}^ house, in the midst of his charming family ; in winter, 
when he has leisure, he resides in Paris. A vigorous 
worker, and an indispensable member of the band of 
moderate republicans earnestly striving to shape a good 
constitution, he will yet add many new laurels to those he 
has already so well earned. He has for many years cherished 
a desire to visit America, but has at last reluctantly given 
it up, as he has such ample store of serious work before 
him at home. His rooms are filled with presents from 
Americans, who gratefully remember him as the champion 
of their beloved country. 



Eugene Rouher. 




UGENE ROUHER was one of the great small 
men of the Second Empire. He played a 
mighty role, and served his master passing well, 
but he never merited that statesmanlike reputation which 
he claimed. Those Frenchmen who appreciated him 
at .his true value when he was at the head of public 
affairs, were wont to~ console themselves for the chagrin 
they felt at seeing him there by laughing at him ; but rid- 
icule never gave Rouher any uneasiness. He was accus- 
tomed to hard knocks ; he liked them ; his health was and 
is vigorous, his appetite Gargantuan, and his capacity for 
work astonishing ; while his ignorance is dense enough to 
prevent that extreme sensitiveness which causes so much 
needless suffering. When people ridiculed him, he smiled 
good-naturedly, and probably thought, in his innermost 
soul, that they were envious. 

Rouher was a lusty baby, according to all accounts, and 
so attractive that gypsies stole him from his parents at 
a country fair and kept -kim some time, restoring him 



EUGENE ROUHER. l6l 

quite unwillingly. He was born at Riom, in the pleasant 
and eccentric department of Auvergne, November 30, 
1 8 14. His father was an attorney, poor, and possessed of 
no special talent. He sent his son to school in patched 
clothes, and that son, instead of whimpering when the 
boys laughed at his patches, knocked his would-be tor- 
mentors down. He cared but little for books, and wasted 
few hours over them. The natural result was that in his 
public career he was forever making amusing mistakes. 
One of the most formidable was perpetrated at a dinner- 
party in Paris, when he confounded Saint Simon, the 
author of the famous memoirs, with the founder of the 
sect .of Saint Simonians. He . passed through the Univer- 
sity of Clermont in such a manner that there was not very 
much scholastic dust on his heels when he left it. He then 
went up to Paris — -where great numbers of stout men and 
women from his province are employed as hewers of wood 
and drawers of water — at the most brilliant epoch of the 
century, socially, politically, and in a literary and artistic 
sense. 

This sturdy young Auvergnat knew very little of poetry, 
of history, of science, or of art. But he knew that this is 
a work-day world, and that the hard-workers get the prizes. 
The romantic fascinations of the great capital hardly touched 
him. He rose at dawn, and worked until midnight every 
day. He studied law with feverish earnestness ; he found 
inspiration in its dry details. As soon as he was admitted 
to the bar, he redoubled his energies, and did as much 
work in an hour as formerly he had accomplished in two. 
He was awkward ; his mannerisms and the accent of his 
native province were intensely disagreeable ; but his labor 



l62 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

overcame all obstacles. He had, too, a wonderful quality 
of enthusiasm which he could take on at a moment's no- 
tice, and by which he often gained cases for his clients at 
the moment that he was supposed to have lost them. He 
was an enormous eater, and a huge flask of thick wine was 
not too much for him at breakfast ; but he was never dis- 
sipated, nor did he loiter in cafes. Loiter ! there was not 
time enough in the twenty-four hours for his work, not to 
mention play. At thirty-five he had made so many friends 
and had so much business that his professional income 
was thirty thousand francs yearly. 

M. Rouher began to feel the influence of the liberal 
ideas then taking root anew in France, when he was in his 
thirty-second year. But he did not propose to go over 
entirely to the liberal camp, and thus to compromise his 
future ; so he talked just liberalism enough for electioneer- 
ing purposes, but really sided with Guizot and the major- 
ity grouped around him. He was unsuccessful inTiis first 
campaign ; but got into the last Assembly elected under 
Louis Philippe, and was a good deal heard of in the com- 
mittee-rooms. But there was no chance in the tribune for 
such rough and ready eloquence as his, when the Assem- 
bly boasted orators like Lamartine, Cousin, Berryer, Arago, 
Louis Blanc, and Odillon Barrot. In the circular which 
he issued before his election, Rouher announced that his 
sympathies were all with a "strong Republic compre- 
hending and applying the sublimities of its device : Liber- 
ty, Equality, and Fraternity." Truth to tell, he was not 
at all glad to see the February revolution ; and his profes- 
sion of republican sympathies was not entirely honest. It 
served him, as it helped him into power ; but he was too 



EUGENE ROUHER. 163 

frank not to show that he feared he had made a mistake. 
His frankness gave him a place in the new Constituent 
Assembly, where he soon distinguished himself by his pro- 
nounced opposition to Louis Blanc, Raspail, Barbes, and 
others ; and where he daily became less and less republi- 
can in sentiment. He voted nevertheless for Cavaignac 
for the presidency of the Republic ; doubtless having 
small confidence in the " Prince Bonaparte" under whose 
rule he afterwards played such an important part. When 
Rouher found that he, had been mistaken in voting for 
Cavaignac, his vexation knew no bounds: "He groaned 
even on the benches of the Assembly," says a clever French 
writer. One day he said to one of his colleagues, — 

" I have lost my future." 

"But you. will find it again," was the answer. 

" How can the prince ever pardon me? " sighed Rou- 
her. 

"Oh!" rejoined his colleague, "don't be alarmed! 
Go bravely to the Elysee palace (it was there that the 
new president Napoleon had established his headquarters); 
to-day you will probably be received badly ; to-morrow a 
little less so ; day after to-morrow, very well ; and in a 
month, you will be minister." 

Rouher cheered up at this advice, and followed it. This 
incident reveals him in his true character. He was not 
merely desirous of finding high place and favor ; he sim- 
ply had no solid convictions in favor of the Republic, and 
was ready to serve any one interested in the re-establish- 
ment of monarchial or imperial rule. The Due de Morny, 
who afterwards became his bitter enemy, is said to have 
first introduced Rouher at the Elysee. Rouher found 



164 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

Napoleon anxious to give him place and work, and was. 
speedily named Minister of Justice, replacing M. Odillon 
Barrot. His promotion came just as he had been re-elected 
to the Chamber, and at a time when his influence as a 
tremendous worker began to be felt. Once or twice he 
did unpopular things, such as saying one day in an exci- 
table speech : "The Revolution of 1848 was a catastro- 
phe, and your Republic is a disgrace ! " But his appoint- 
ment as minister was, on the whole, popular ; for Rouher 
was not looked upon as a man committed to the interest of 
any particular dynasty. 

The President, who was so soon to become an emperor, 
admired Rouher for his marvelous faculty of assimilation. 
Of this faculty the lawyer-minister had given the most as- 
tounding examples at the bar. He would take a case at 
eleven o'clock in the morning, understand it completely, 
master it, and plead it by one o'clock. No one could 
equal him in the rapidity with which he made up a brief; 
it seemed like magic. He carried this facility into his 
ministerial functions, and, alloying it with his vast indus- 
try, he did wonders. There were days when his work 
seemed so completely to monopolize him that he forgot 
the outer world. A minister of the United States one day 
found him bending over his work-table, half dressed, his 
unshaven face and uncombed hair betraying the fact that 
he had been there since he left his bed. He simply mut- 
tered an excuse, and proceeded to the business on hand 
with his usual lucidity and expedition. 

He made some blunders in his early ministerial career, 
and once narrowly escaped precipitating a crisis. During 
the session of July 8, 1850, he was defending the law pro- 



EUGENE ROUHER. 165 

posed for regulation of the press, when he happened to 
speak of the Revolution as "that great social upheaval pro- 
duced by the twenty-fourth of February, which I shall 
always consider as a veritable catastrophe. " There was a 
tumult, and the Left arose in disorder. The session was 
adjourned, after the Minister of Justice had been called to 
order for eating his own words. Perhaps the wily Auverg- 
nat has now and then blushed for the manner in which he 
finally rejected the sentiments which graced his maiden 
electoral circular. Victor Hugo took occasion, next day, 
to administer a smart cuff to Rouher, alluding scornfully 
to " those revolutions which bring out of the shade at once 
such great ideas and such little men ! " 

It was Edmond About who said of Rouher's eloquence, 
that it was a "thunderous assemblage of platitudes." 
Emile Ollivier has analyzed it as follows : " His method is 
that of lawyers. His beginning is full of promise ; he 
commences his discourse by a startling analysis of the argu- 
ments of his adversaries ; he announces with assurance that 
he is about to confound them ; but he oftenest does not 
reply to them at all. He edges around difficulties. If he 
discovers an error or a contradiction of detail, he dwells on 
it in triumph, and masks the feebleness of his own argu- 
ment on the essential point by an appeal to the passions of 
those whom he is addressing. In order to triumph by the 
aid of these processes, it is necessary that no one answer 
him ; and thus all the strategy of the ex-premier has always 
consisted in getting the last word." Rouher has also been ac- 
cused of twisting facts, making what the polite Gauls call 
' ' inexact affirmations, " for eff"ect in his speeches. Emile Ol- 
livier said of him as a legal speaker, " He thinlcs any means 



l66 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

fair which assure him a momentary success." Gambetta 
is said once to have been so captivated by Rouher's vivacity 
and rude earnestness that he called him the "prince of 
orators," but this was a judgment rendered in an excited 
moment, when Rouher was doing a disagreeable duty, — • 
that of expounding some liberal measures preferred by the 
Empire — with such ingenuity and apparent zeal as to 
wring admiration from all who heard him. Rouher made 
no small capital out of the vehement manner in which he 
defended the Pope. One of his speeches in 1867, in which 
he was more than usually violent and menacing against all 
enemies of the Temporal Power, contained this sentence : 
" We declare, in the name of the French Government, that 
Italy shall never take possession of Rome ; Jtever will France 
permit that violence to be done to her honor and her Cath- 
olicity. " But Italy took Rome nevertheless, a few years 
later, just as M. Rouher knew that she would. He cared 
little for the Pope, but he made use of him occasionally as 
a help to popularity. 

In 1869, Rouher surprised the Members of the Corps 
Legislatif by one day declaring, in an address on commer- 
cial affairs, that the industrial productions of Paris had in- 
creased in value in three years, from three to six millions of 
francs. This statement made vast capital for the Empire, 
until it was discovered that there was not the slightest 
foundation for it in fact. 

Decidedly the man for Napoleon III. and the Little ! 
Not likely to become too great ; a faithful henchman, too 
laborious to have uneasy dreams of ambition!^ Rouher 
got into the new Cabinet, appointed December 3, 1851, and 
remained th'^iceforward until July, 1869, in office, with 



EUGENE ROUHER. l67 

the exception of a few months in 1852, when he resigned, 
to show his contempt for the odious law which authorized 
the confiscation and sale of the lands belonging to th,e 
Orleans family. During the long term that he was in of- 
fice he was successively Minister of Justice, of Commerce, 
of Finance, of the Interior, of State, and always did twice as 
much work as any one else in the government. He never 
received a great deal of public applause or honor, for 
he was not remarkably distinguished in appearance, and 
on the street might have been taken for a notary from some 
obscure corner of Auvergne. He was once mistaken for 
a flunkey by the hair-dresser at whose shop he left a com- 
mission from his wife ; and this story getting abroad among 
M. Rouher's enemies, caused much merriment. It seems, 
according to the malicious wags who spread the tale broad- 
cast over France, that the concierge at the porter's lodge, in 
the hair-dresser's house, even took M. Rouher, who was 
then Minister of State, to task for not going up the back 
stairs. 

Rouher's name is inseparably associated with those of 
the Emperor Napoleon III. and of Michel Chevalier, in 
the negotiation of the Treaty of Commerce, but he can lay 
no other claim to fame. He is, and ever has been, a me- 
diocrity. Had he not possessed great capacity for work he 
would have remained forgotten in a corner. The Empire 
gave him the opportunity which the Republic would never 
have afforded him — that of making himself prominent by 
the bard-headed tenacity and faithfulness with which he 
did dirty work. He helped to keep down the gallant peo- 
ple, whose liberties were taken from them under the pretext 
that they were sure to abuse them. He was punished in 



l68 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

after years, for the facility with which he broke faith with 
the Repubhc of 1848, by finding himself condemned, 
toward the latter days of the Empire, to attempt the em- 
bodying in the Constitution of the very reforms against 
which he had fought persistently ever since the coup d'eiai. 
He did it smilingly, but it cut him none the less severely. 
He only quavered once or twice, one of the noticeable oc- 
casions being in February of 1868, when he begged Napo- 
leon not to insist on his defending that increased liberty 
of the press which he had spoken against for fifteen years. 
The Emperor caressed Rouher, and told him that he must 
do it ; and he did, swallowing his words once more, smil- 
ing, and protesting that he liked it all the time. 

Rouher went down in 1869, when Emile OUivier came 
into power. He met his fate gracefully, although he was 
terribly worried anew for his future until he found that 
he was to be made President of tiae Senate. When it was 
announced that he had arrived at that dignity, he re- 
joiced at his removal from the Ministry, for it was evident 
that he had gained by the change. The Senate was to 
have the power of accusing the Ministry,, and was to pos- 
sess the privilege of initiative in projects for constitutional 
law, so that Rouher was really more important than the 
minister who replaced him. 

Rouher's opening speech at the assembling of the new 
Senate, in August of 1869, contained the following sen- 
tence : "Political science consists in adopting proper 
changes in government, when public opinion presents the 
opportunities." In other words, according to the honor- 
able Auvergnat, it is the same science which prompts a cat 
always to fall upon its legs. That Rouher did not fore- 



EUGENE ROUHER. 169 

see the revolution, which at that time was in the air, and 
which would have overturned the Empire had not the 
Prussians undertaken the task, is evident from the manner 
in which, in the above-mentioned speech, he menaced the 
revolutionists. ."Even," he said, "as an august person- 
age has remarked, the Empire is popular enough to have 
a proper understanding with the fullest liberalism, and 
strong enough to preserve that liberty from anarchy." A 
statement at once more audacious and fallacious cannot be 
found on record in the history of political speech-making. 
Rouher must also have been blind as to the actual condi- 
tion of the resources of France at the outbreak of the 
Franco-Prussian war ; for he was one of the numerous 
mad-caps who assured the world that the French were 
ready to fight He was totally unprepared for the Fourth 
of September, and was compelled to run away to England 
in most undignified style, the enraged crowds along the 
line of his journey with difficulty refraining from breaking 
his head. A scrubby and uninfluential sheet, called 
"The Situation," printed in French, was started in Lon- 
don, under Rouher's influence, but never did anything ex- 
cept waste the Imperial funds. 

Rouher found himself speedily at the head of the exiled 
Imperialist party, and was for a long time exclusively em- 
ployed in intrigues, which resulted in no practical advan^ 
tage to the adherents of the fallen Empire. He was a can- 
didate for the National Assembly in July, 1871, in two 
departments, but was defeated in both. He busied him- 
self with journalism after his return to France, writing ar- 
ticles in which he assumed a tone of reproach, which was 
peculiarly maddening to French liberals, who were always 



I/O BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

extremely angry at his audacity. A Corsican member 
finally, in 1872, resigned his seat in the Assembly in favor 
of Rouher, who has since been now and then prominent 
in the debates. Shortly after his return to parliamentary 
life he undertook an elaborate apology for his Imperial 
master, but was completely worsted in a brilliant speech 
by the Due d'Audiffret-Pasquier, now President of the As- 
sembly. He has been a little abashed since that time, 
and has lost favor in the eyes of the more pronounced of 
the Imperialists by the long silence he has maintained. It 
is possible that he has become convinced of the hopeless- 
ness of a permanent Bonapartist restoration, and is turn- 
ing his gaze toward some new man of order, who will not 
give liberty to the people, and who will know how to de- 
spise revolutions. The rumors that Rouher meditates a 
complete rupture with his old employers perhaps have a 
basis of fact. 

The "Vice-Emperor," as he was sometimes called in Im- 
perial days, is of sturdy build, and has a good but rather 
negative face, ornamented with expressionless side whiskers. 
He has an obstinate chin, a pouting mouth, sharp eyes, 
and a forehead high because it is bald. He has one ges- 
ture by which he is always betrayed in the tribune when 
seeking to make a point : he darts out his right arm vio- 
lently, then withdrawing it, pounds the desk with his 
fist, much as he did in the old days when he pleaded 
petty cases in a musty court. In private life he is a very 
agreeable man, with fortune large enough to enable him 
to gratify his tastes, and with no very violent animosities. 
He does not seem to have upon his conscience any of the 
misfortunes, the crimes, or the follies of the twenty odd 



! 



EUGENE ROUHER. I/i 

years during which he was near the throne. That there 
were blunders he does not deny ; but he would not ad- 
mit that there had been anything wrong in the conduct of 
the Government. M. Rouher has never been accused 
with justice of enriching himself at the public expense ; he 
has always been too busy to think much about accumulat- 
ing wealth. He owns a fine mansion in the Champs 
Elysees, whose rental gives him a handsome income. If 
he could learn to avoid the tone of reproachful superiority 
which he never fails to introduce in his public speeches lat- 
terly, he would not be entirely unpopular among a large 
class. But he seems incapable of wisdom in that respect. 
Exactly how much he is interested in Imperialist intrigue 
throughout the country it will be impossible to know until 
some new movement reveals the truth as to the rumored 
schism in the Bonapartist faction. 




Edgar Raoul Duval. 




[HOSE who, either from curiosity or choice, have 
now and then visited the Cafe de la Paix, the 
chief rendezvous of Bonapartists in Paris, during 
the last three or four years, have probably heard the name 
of Raoul Duval mentioned in common with almost every 
variety of criticism. Time was when the impetuous young 
politician was frowned down by the unbending and singu- 
larly old-fashioned folk who constitute the mass of chief 
supporters of th.e Second Empire. When bald heads were 
bowed over the evening absinthe, and the day's session at 
Versailles came under discussion, one would hear "Raoul 
Duval," "headstrong," "blind," "doesn't know where 
he is going," "imprudent young dog," and other epithets 
calculated to impress a casual observer with the idea that 
the Duval in question was far from being as conservative as 
he might be, and that the united voices of the Cafe de la 
Paix decried him as too sanguine, too frank, too impulsive 
to succeed in politics. Later, when Raoul Duval had 
shown his capacities in a new and startling manner, the old 



EDGAR RAOUL DUVAL. 1 73 

fogies spoke of him as an "upstart," but as a "promising 
man," who might j-et show sense enough to come frankly 
over to the party of Imperialism and peace. And still 
later, when he seceded from the Right, with which he had 
been long and intimately associated, and made an enthu- 
siastic speech in defense of the fallen Empire, the old ones 
stirred their absinthe with more than usual energy, and 
cried, as with one accord : "Raoul Duval is the leader of 
the Young Imperialist party ! Long live Raoul Duval ! " 

The person in question, who, whether abused or 
praised, managed to get himself spoken of every day, both 
by the press and in the parlors and cafes, is a vigorous and 
enterprising man of forty-three years of age. His belief 
in himself is strong, but no whit tempered or tainted with 
conceit.. His convictions are positive while they last ; but 
he is somewhat inconstant in politics. It would be unsafe 
to say that he is either dishonest or unscrupulous in his 
course, yet if he were a man of colder and more calculating 
vein, he would certainly be accused of improper motives, 
so lightly does he change his base. He has power, and 
much more of that than of experience ; he uses his strength 
recklessly and gracefully, like an animal that has never 
been trained to effort. One of his most nervous and 
effective speeches from the tribune was criticised as fol- 
lows : — 

" M. Raoul Duval has plenty of entrain, oi elan, of fire, 
of repartee, but he lacks the power of continued pursu- 
ance of one subject. While he is in the tribune his whole 
body trembles with excitement ; his hands frisk in the air, 
and his sentences gallop ; he throws himself head foremost 
into the battle ; he charges, he strikes, he parries, he 



174 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

raises a frio:htfLil tumult ; he writhes and struggles. Have 
you never seen, in the bull-ring of Madrid or Cordova, a 
strong-necked bull plunge into the arena ? He hurls him- 
self with terrible force at the first enemy that he sees ; he 
is about to crush him, when — bah ! one of the bull- 
fighters flourishes a bit of cloth before the animal's eyes. 
The bull turns and rushes upon the new object. Other 
fighters then surround him, worry him, prick him with 
their spears in his neck, dazzle him with their strips of red 
cloth ; while he, rushing h^ead down, always at the latest 
distraction, runs in every direction, and thus allows him- 
self to be conducted at the will of his adversaries. M. 
Raoul Duval, in the tribune, seems like one of these circus 
bulls, aggressive, lashing his audience with his words, he 
instantly lets loose storms, and unchains all the passions. 
Cries, denials attacks, murmurs come upon him from 
every quarter ; he rushes out of his road ; throws himself 
upon each tormentor, irritates the co-ntradictory ones, 
does not desist from attacking them until they are silent. 
Then he suddenly discovers that he has lost his way. He 
begins with a good and substantial address ; he finishes 
with a rolling fire of passionate responses to attacks hurled 
at him." 

Duval was born in the picturesque little mountain town 
of Laon, on the 9th of April, 1832. His father was the 
first President of the Court at Bordeaux, and was excluded 
from the magistracy by the delegation of the Government 
of National Defense, because he was accused of having 
been concerned in the "mixed commissions" of 1852, 
The father was restored to his magisterial honors after the 
present National Assembly came into power. Young Du- 



i 



EDGAR RAOUL DUVAL. .I75 

val entered the legal world at a tender age. Under the 
Empire he was connected with the official lawyers at Nantes, 
was advocate-general at Angers, Bordeaux, and Rouen, 
and was inscribed at the bar in the latter city. 

He was but little known in the political world when he 
was elected deputy from the Seine-Inferieure, July 2d, 1871, 
by fifty-eight thousand three hundred and eighty-seven 
votes, but he had no sooner entered the Assembly than he 
took position as one of the leaders of the Right. 

Raoul Duval was first noted among politicians because 
of the earnestness and great nifmber of his attacks upon M. 
Thiers. He was never satisfied to let any measure pro- 
posed by the elder statesman pass Avithout having some 
objections made to it. Whenever there was a concerted 
attack on Thiers, Duval was observed in the van, engaged 
in a kind of guerilla warfare which would have been laugh- 
able had there not been so much of force and intelligence 
displayed in it, although both were neutralized by the dif- 
fuse manner in which they were used. Raoul Duval 
fought against the treaty concluded by the President of the 
Republic for the anticipated liberation of territory from the 
enemy's presence. He demanded that Ranc, a member 
of the Commune who had enjoyed some immunity from 
judgment, should be put on trial and judged by default, 
and he finally secured the condemnation to death of the 
aforesaid Ranc, who smiled seren-ely on his judges from a 
safe position just across the Belgian frontier. He asked 
for the dismissal of all those municipal magistrates who 
were present at that banquet in Havre, at which Gambetta 
made a speech in favor of the immediate dissolution of the 
Assembly. One of h's defiant propositions led to the re- 



1/6 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

tirement from office of Victor Lefranc, when he was Minis- 
ter of the Interior. This is only a hasty outline of the 
man's tempestuous career as a leader of the Right. He 
was in perpetual storm ; demanding, sneering, fighting ; 
and to him and his curious tactics the Right certainly 
owed much of its success in procuring the dubiously hon- 
orable victory of the 24th of May. 

Raoul Duval had labored with Broglie to destroy Thiers, 
and every one was astonished when he went suddenly over 
to the enemy, and began to combat his old ally with ihe 
same energy which he had employed in aiding him. He 
declared that he had not anticipated the events which fol- 
lowed the overthrow of the Thiers ministry : and he 
therefore felt free to repudiate his old connections. " After 
the 24th of May, " he said, "nothing remained but to as- 
sume the maintenance of order, respect for the laws, and 
to allow the country to pronounce upon its destinies by 
free elections. It was not fair to create a party policy 
which tended to substitute the will of a few for the will of 
the nation." 

Ah 1 M. Raoul Duval perhaps had dreamed that, Thiers 
and his fellows once out of the way, the road to the pledt's- 
cite 7md to a bloodless return to the Imperial regime would 
lie open. He had not then learned the truth of the ironical 
maxim that " the French Republic is destined to be defi- 
nitely founded by its enemies." He imagined that the 
battle was nearly over, but discovered, to his supreme sur- 
prise, that it was but just begun. 

He therefore assumed as decisive an attitude as his char- 
acter would permit. He seized upon the attempt at a 
monarchical restoration as the occasion for an absolute and 



f 

i 



EDGAR RAOUL DUVAL. 1/7 

final rupture with the party of the Right. He wrote to 
the president of the famous "Commission of Nine" a 
letter in which he refused his adhesion to the projected 
restoration, in the following terms : 

"It costs me not a little to separate myself on such an 
important question from those in company with whom I 
have fought for the last two years ; but in such enterprises 
as that which is to-day attempted, there must be no mis- 
understanding as to votes or co-operation. The esteem 
which you have kindly desired to testify makes it my duty 
to inform you that I cannot accept the responsibility which 
a monarchical restoration on the conditions proposed 
would naturally engender. I remain, therefore, aloof, 
leaving free to act all those who, more fortunate than my- 
self, have faith in, as well as hope Tor success." 

Duval's campaign against the Duke of Broglie, and the 
ministers who, succeeding him, adhered in some measure 
to his policy, led him on one or two occasions to act fairly 
in harmony with the Left, although he was nothing less 
than republican. He was inconsistent enough to rush 
into the tribune, and indulge in an extravagant eulogy 
upon Thiers, the man whom he had fought so bitterly 
against before the 24th of May. He so far forgot himselt 
as, at times, to shout for the dissolution of the Assembly, 
although every deputy present could remember when the 
same man had stigmatized as fit to be classed with Com- 
munists every person who had ventured to hint at dissolu- 
tion. The constitutional laws were, however, a subject 
upon which he was consistent. He fought them from 
their birth until their adoption ; he made dozens of 
speeches against them ; he embarrassed them with count- 



178 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

less motions ; he hedged them with imaginary difficul- 
ties. 

The shrewd Bonapartists in the Assembly nodded their 
heads, when they saw this young and fiery free lance in 
the field; and they said, ''Give him time enough, and 
he will come over to us ! " He came. Shortly afi;er Gam- 
betta made his noted address at Belleville, early in 1875 — ' 
an address in which he counseled moderation, patience, 
and even conservatism, — Raoul Duval spoke at Menil- 
montant, to ' ' counterbalance the eff"ect of Gambetta's 
speech," and announced his faith in and admiration for 
Imperial institutions. The speech was stronger and more 
logical than his previous efforts ; it was bold and open, 
praised the latterly much vilified Second Empire, and 
prophesied its restoration. Of course he received many 
curses, and the cold shoulder in quarters where he had 
once been welcome ; but he had gained his point. He 
had made himself, by an audacious stroke, the chief of a 
party which is gradually gaining ground in France, the 
"Young Imperialist" faction. His position among the 
members of this organization was strengthened when the 
ex-Prince Imperial wrote him a letter of congratulation 
and thanks. . The veterans at the Cafe de la Paix smiled 
knowingly, and said that if the young man did not err by 
enthusiasm and ambition, he would have a brilliant fu- 
ture. 

"Young Imperialism" has not many men of Raoul 
Duval's worth in its ranks. Whether or not he is a firm 
believer in the Empire ; whether he rejects the Republic 
as impossible, is disgusted with the monarchical parties as 
irreconcilable, and therefore takes refuge in the Empire's 



EDGAR RAOUL DUVAL. 1 79 

sheltering arms, it is now impossible to affirm. That he 
has definitely announced his present alliance with the 
Imperialists is evident; it would be both useless and 
improper to attempt to prophesy or prejudge his future 
course. 



The Due de Brogue. 




N the days when the Due de Broglie was ambassa- 
dor of the young French RepubUc at London, 
^1 yet spent much of his time in journeys to Ver- 



sailles,^where he threw all his influence against the growth 
and adoption of republican principles, people, both in 
France and England, were wont to speak of him as the 
prince of intriguers, and to prophesy that he would be 
more than a match for the cleverest workers in the cause 
of freedom. Broglie went at his work with such sublime 
confidence in his own resources, and at first succeeded so 
admirably, that he was undoubtedly much more surprised 
than was any one else in France when he was overthrown, 
and the Republic was established on the ruins of his min- 
istr)^ 

It is the fashion to say that the French Republic has 
been founded by its adversaries. There is a grain of truth 
in this cynical remark ; the eff"orts of such men as Broglie 
have served to emphasize and to redouble the energy, as 
well as the caution, of all who believe that a Republican 



THE DUG DE BROGUE. l8l 

regime is the only safe and satisfactory one for France. 
Had not Thiers been overthrown, had not Broglie and his 
men come into power, and played their fantastic tricks for 
a brief twelvemonth, the Republic's cause would have lost 
rather than gained strength. 

As grandson of Madame de Stael and son of the old 
rninister under the July government, the present Due de 
Broglie has a very good opinion of himself It is not 
probable that that appreciation has lessened by the rude 
experience which befell him in May of 1874. He, perhaps, 
looks upon those who overthrew him as ungrateful wretches 
marching to a certain doom. He has always been a furi- 
ous preacher in behalf of moral order, and persists in as- 
serting that under the Republic France can never be sure 
of tranquillity. Like many other Frenchmen very firmly 
wedded to the traditions of the past, he wants guarantees 
for the future ; he is unwilling to trust it in the hands of 
the people. He resents popular interference in govern- 
mental affairs ; it is inexpressibly annoying to him to find 
the representatives of those blue and white-bloused work- 
men who live in garrets and frequent wine shops, jostling 
him in the corridors of the Palace of Versailles. When he 
saw that the people really had begun to take an active part 
in the government his first thought was, " A little intrigue 
and a few gloomy prophecies will soon frighten them out 
of that ! I myself" — and it is impossible for any one who 
has not seen the worthy duke to imagine the unction with 
which he pronounces those words so beloved by him — " I 
myself can help them away from anarchy into a secure 
condition, with which they will be infinitely better satisfied 
than with this monstrosity called republicanism." He 



l82 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

was not angry, but hurt and somewhat offended when 
people laughed at his fears. He wond-ered much when 
the ridicule which he had often prophesied would one day 
overwhelm Father Thiers, because of that venerable states- 
man's adhesion to republicanism, was suddenly showered 
upon the sacred head of a Broglie who was a prince of the 
Holy Roman Empire, and an Academician. 

Jacques Victor Albert, the present Duke of Broglie, 
was born in Paris, June 13, 1821. His father was the cele- 
brated statesman who, although little favorable to the 
Bonapartists, held many honorable positions during the 
reign of Napoleon I. ; was named peer of France under 
the Restoration ; combated liberalism under ■ Louis Phil- 
ippe ; fought the battles of constitutional monarchy after 
the February Revolution ; and retiring from political life 
when the Second Empire came on, was accorded a seat in 
the Academy. This polished and accomplished nobleman 
gave his sons a thorough education, and the present duke 
made such good use of his that when twenty-seven years 
of age he was a noted publicist, and contributed an article 
to the Revue des Deux Mondes on the foreign policy of the 
then existing Republic, in which he called the Revolution 
of '48 "the February catastrophe," and gave utterance to 
many somber prophecies that society was about to be 
shaken to its foundations. The young man also worked 
hard in preparing for his destined career, that of diplomacy, 
and was on the point of receiving a commission as the 
secretary of an embassy when the Revolution of 1848 broke 
out. 

The family of the Broglies is of Italian origin. The 
story goes, that in 1644, a Piedmontese captain, hardy, 



THE DUG DE BROGLIE. 1 83 

brave, and supple, like most Italian adventurers of his 
epoch, entered the service of France. Mazarin, prince of 
intriguers, was then in power, and took kindly to the ob- 
scure captain, whose name was Broglio, and whose nature 
did not belie the significance of his name. In the days of 
the Fronde, the young Italian did yeoman-service ; made 
his fortune, and founded the illustrious family whose roll 
of honor is long and imposing. But as a French writer 
happily remarks, Broglio and imbroglio were, in the case, 
of each descendant of the little captain, interchangeable 
terms. The counts, the dukes, the marshals, were auda- 
cious, cunning, and prone to intrigue. In 1759, the 
family was admitted among the princes of the Holy Em- 
pire. The great grandfather of the present duke was a 
field-marshal, and the grandfather, a man of noble senti- 
ments, was guillotined in 1794. The Italian beginnings 
of the house are still hinted at to-day, in the pronunciation 
of the family name, which makes Broille of "Broglio." 

The present duke was as active and energetic in making 
his way in the world as if he had had a livelihood to earn. 
He wrote well, and left a good mark on French journalism. 
He hated the Republic with a calm and concentrated hate 
which seemed rather the influence of family traditions than 
of any deliberate judgment. He never rallied to the Sec- 
ond Empire, but treated it disdainfully, and fired epigrams 
at it. Napoleon could not aiford to banish either his 
father or young Broglie himself; he could but menace, and 
await events. Young Broglie was a very constant contri- 
butor to the Rtvue des Deux Mondes, to the Correspondant, 
and the Francais, which latter journal is even to this day 
his special organ ; and he now and then pleased himself 



1 84 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

with lively sallies, and sometimes vigorous assaults in these 
publications on the Napoleonic policy. His enemies also 
say, that in those days he was a great stickler for that com- 
munal freedom, the right of local self-government, of 
which he has been such a bitter adversary in his later 
political career. He was largely instrumental in forming, 
in 1863, the noted "Liberal Union," on which he hoped 
to group all the elements opposed to Imperialism, and to 
hurl them against the Empire at election time. In 1869, 
he presented himself as an independent candidate for the 
Corps Legislatif from his department of the Eure, but the 
administration exerted itself to such good purpose that he 
only succeeded in securing a few votes, although he ex- 
pressly declared in his electoral circular, that he was not 
animated by any systematic hostility against existing pow- 
ers, and demanded "the development of all those public 
liberties whose existence or sanction were still in doubt." 
Napoleon III. would have been delighted to accord 
honors and places to the representatives of the great 
Broglie family ; but he was determined that they should 
not command them. When Ollivier was endeavoring to 
carry out the Emperor's deceitful parliamentary plans early 
in 1870, overtures were made to the Broglies, but they did 
not accept them. 

The present duke had had his title but a short time, his 
father living to a ripe old age, when the downfall of the 
Empire, and the advent of the Fourth of September 
brought him into a very prominent position. It also 
opened a wide field for the exercise of his almost insatiable 
ambition. He applied himself strenuously to electioneer- 
ing, and was elected to the National Assembly from the 



THE DUG DE BROGLTE. 1-85 

Department of the Eure, on the 8th of February, 1871, by 
forty-five thousand four hundred and fifty-eight votes. He 
assisted at the stormy sessions in Bordeaux, and as soon as 
Thiers was definitely established in power, he appointed 
Broglie ambassador of the Republic at London. The 
duke at once set out on his mission, determined to make 
the most of his new opportunities, and to overturn the 
Republic, if possible. He felt, as he probably does to-day, 
honestly convinced that the English form of government is 
better and safer than the Republic, and he took every oc- 
casion to say so both at Bordeaux and Versailles, and in 
London. The contemptuous manner in which he spoke 
of the government which he represented abroad can be 
pardoned only on the supposition that he believed it ab- 
normal, and likely soon to be overthrown, to serve as a 
stepping-stone for another. In August, 1871, he left Lon- 
don expressly to visit Versailles, and to fight against a 
proposition which had not then left the committee-room. 
After a few hints as to the embarrassing nature of his con- 
duct, he resigned his ambassadorship with great dignity, 
and returned to the Assembly. 

None of the Broglies had ever been disciples of Thiers, 
and the present duke was even more hostile to the chief of 
executive power than his father had been. Seated at the 
centre right, the duke worked with great zeal every day at 
the task of overturning M. Thiers. He was a member of 
the deputation which, in view of the republican elections 
in June of 1872, went to demand of the chief of state 
that- he should conform his policy rather more to the 
views of the Right. Thiers received this delegation 
very coldly, and it was possibly then that he, for the 



l86 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

first time, distinctly understood that Broglie desired his 
downfall. 

The Duke of Broglie was much laughed at by Repub- 
licans for a time. Thiers went steadily forward paying off 
the war indemnity and liberating the conquered territory, 
while Broglie published circulars and letters in the Courier 
de France and other journals, announcing that in conserva- 
tive policy and monarchical coalition the only safe:y was 
to be found. Outside of conservatism as he understood 
it, there was "naught but bankruptcy, anarchy, ruin." 
Broglie absolutely refused to be convinced by facts that 
Thiers w^as successful. 

Inasmuch as he could not at once overthrow Thiers, he 
sought to embarrass him by the creation of the Committee 
of Thirty. But the veteran statesman managed to bear 
with even the freaks of this combination of political jug- 
glers. It was only the menace contained in the demand 
of the Right for a "resolute conservative policy, " as ex- 
pressed and explained by the Due de Broglie, that in- 
duced Thiers to resign his office, and to allow the in- 
triguing duke to become vice-president of the Council 
of Ministers. 

Broglie was fond of speaking of moderation of internal 
policy, before he came into power. But he seems to have 
laid aside his old sentiments as soon as he gained a con- 
trolling voice in the direction of affairs. He was arbitrary, 
vexatious, and it is not too much to say that he was un- 
wise. He furnished, during his year of control, a striking 
illustration of the embarrassments of those Frenchmen who 
are afraid to undertake new experiments in government, 
and are consequently returning constantly to the use of the 



THE DUG DE BROGLIE. ' 187 

old despotic and repressive machinery which, in their in- 
nermost consciences, they themselves condemn. 

The law by which large numbers of the old Imperialist 
mayors were re-established in office in ihe provinces, was 
Broglie's great work during his ministry, and was pressed 
by him under the pretext that "moral order" must be 
maintained. The mayor of any little town, by co-operation 
with that formidable representative of the central govern- 
ment, the prefect, has an immense amount of repressive 
power in France; and Broglie's appointees were of course, 
one and all, anxious to repress the Republic. This law 
was so unpopular that Broglie's ministry narrowly escaped 
downfall immediately after its passage. The artful duke 
managed to maintain a reasonably neutral attitude with re- 
gard to monarchical candidates at the time that the proj- 
ects of a "restoration" were agitated, and contented him- 
self with pleading the cause of monarchy in general. He 
now and then changed his portfolio, but he remained at 
the head of the ministerial council. The Legitimists, 
however, who were his enemies, because he had declared 
that the " Septennate " shut the door in monarchy's face 
for seven years, labored to overthrow him. Broglie, mean- 
time, tried to postpone the discussion of the constitutional 
law projects for an indefinite period, and proposed a kind 
of Grand Council, or high Legislative Chamber, instead of 
the Senate and House demanded by the Republicans. 
When he presented this proposition in the Assembly, it 
was received in solemn silence. The due de Broglie 
recognized that he had made a mistake. A few days there- 
after, a coalition of the members of the Left and the Legit- 
imists, as well as a few Bonapartists, put an end to the 



1 88 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

Broglie ministry, refusing to support it on some simple 
matters in the orders of the day, and thus showing the 
want of confidence which brings ministers to a realzing 
sense of the insecurity of office tenure. 

The duke's ardor was by no, means lessened after his 
fall. He spoke often in the Assembly, and was especially 
violent in his opposition to Casimir Perier's proposition 
for the organization of the Republic. As one of the lead- 
ers of the Centre and Moderate Right, his nervous yet 
somewhat monotonous eloquence is often heard in the 
tribune. He has been prominent latterly in connection 
with a law proposing to submit press offenses to juries, 
and has had not a little to say concerning educational 
matters. He has generally been considered a liberal 
Catholic, and in the introduction to his principal work, 
"The Church and the Roman Empire in the Fourth 
Century," he issued a kind of manifesto of liberalism in 
religious matters. He came into the French Academy in 
1862 as the successor of Lacordaire. He is sometimes 
compared with Guizot, not in renown or genius, but there 
are certain points of resemblance between the characters 
of the dead historian and the living politician. Both men 
will be noted in future as having had a supreme disdain 
for public opinion, and as having been overthrown because 
they persisted in opposing it with their own schemes. 
Broglie once told some scholars in a speech at a well- 
known school, never to count with confidence, if they 
wished to save or serve their country, upon any institu- 
tion, or any one principle ; but only, after God, upon 
themselves. 

One cannot rely upon the Due de Broglie's enemies 



THE DUG DE BROGLIE. 1 89 

for an accurate personal description of the man. They 
are fond of ridiculing him as fussy and important ; they 
laugh at his nervous gestures, his perpetual and almost 
hysterical smile, and his harsh voice and unadorned phrases. 
They joke about the laborious manner in which he cor- 
rects his speeches before he permits them to be printed in 
the official journal ; and they have drawn many amusing 
pictures of his attitudes when electioneering or lobbying 
in the palace corridors. Besides his work on the "Church 
and the Empire," he has written two other volumes, one 
on "Julian the Apostate," and the other on "Theodore 
the Great." The duke has a numerous and charming 
family, and his name is sure to be worthily perpetuated. 



Louis Joseph Buffet, 




OUIS JOSEPH BUFFET is one of those men 
whose influence is most powerful in the present 
French Assembly ; yet he rarely climbs into the 
tribune, and few people know him when he passes along 
the street. He is an unpretending, rather waspish man ; 
not over sociable, but a good lobbyist. In this latter ac- 
complishment lies the secret of his rare power. In the 
corridor he is matchless ; the political atmosphere within 
half a mile of the palace at Versailles is surcharged with 
Buffet. He buzzes from group to group, accomplishing 
more while the members are going in to take their seats 
than some slower men could bring about by a week's har- 
anguing. Not entirely a lovable man, this lobbying, 
curiously unsympathetic, yet strangely attractive Buffet ! 
The Assembly had a taste of his nerve when he was presi- 
dent of the body ; he kept the unruly people well in 
check ; snubbed those who were too presumptuous, and 
ignored the foolish. He is, perhaps, too apt to suspect 
men's motives ; is a little crabbed when they endeavor to 
conciliate him ; likes to carp at their faults, and is not 



LOUIS JOSEPH BUFFET. I9I 

forward in complimenting them upon their excellences. 
Sometimes he quarrels with his colleagues in the ministry, 
simply because they disagree on some small point with 
him. He is a contemner of show and luxury ; a hater of 
place-hunters and courtiers ; a good republican in his 
ideas on salaries and State appointments. Whenever he 
is in any public position, he lives in the simplest and 
plainest manner. When he was Minister of Finance under 
the Second Empire, he would not inhabit the splendid 
mansion which has always been one of the perquisites of 
that post ; but remained in his modest apartment in an 
unfashionable street. When Thiers was president, Buffet 
one day astonished every one by presenting a demand that 
the ministers be not allowed to inhabit the ministries, as 
it accustomed the honorable appointees and their families 
to an improper claim of luxury. There is a grain of truth 
in this, and, perhaps, Republican France will yet bring 
down the level of splendor heretofore so intimately associ- 
ated with French civil service. 

M. Buffet is the son of an old officer of the First Em- 
pire, and was born at Mirecourt on the 26th of October,' 
181 8. He was bred a lawyer, but was little known until 
1848, when he entered the Constituent Assembly with a 
declaration of faith conceived in these words : " According 
to my firm conviction, the Assembly should give us the 
Republic — not at all as one of those experiments which 
are tried without any great regard for success, and with 
the secret thought that one must carefully plan against a 
failure. No, gentlemen ! we must labor to found the 
Republic, with energetic and determined will to make it suc- 
ceed, and to devote body and purse to this great work ! " 



192 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

These were brave and enthusiastic sentiments, and al- 
though M. Buffet does not fully act up to their high im- 
port in these late days, the memory of them softens the 
opinions of the lovers of liberty when they now and then 
feel inclined to curse the old gentleman for his timorous 
conservatism. Buffet did not exactly follow out his pro- 
gramme in 1848, for he sat with the Right. He was al- 
ways an avowed enemy of socialism, and fought it severely. 
He readily adhered to the republican constitution ; was 
re-elected to the Legislative Assembly from the Vosges 
department, which had originally sent him to the Cojisiiiu- 
ante ; and vigorously sustained the presidential policy. 
He became Minister of Commerce and Agriculture in the 
first cabinet formed December 31, 1848, by Louis Napp- 
leon, and presided over by Odillon Barrot. He had a 
slight difference with his colleagues concerning financial 
measures, and left the ministry in October, 1849. ^^ 
next occupied himself with a project for reform in electoral 
law ; and was an active legislator when called a second 
time, April 10, 1851, into the ministry. He retired again 
at the same time with Rouher and Baroche, when the 
repeal of the famous law of the thirty-first of May was 
demanded. 

Like Casimir Perier, Buffet was arrested and tempora- 
rily imprisoned at the time of the coup d'etat. After his 
release, he was not heard from until 1865, when he suc- 
ceeded in entering the Corps Legislatif as an independent 
candidate. He classed himself with the liberal deputies, 
did all that he could to insure liberty, and voted for the 
abrogation of the infamous "law of general surety." He 
continued to battle for liberty until 1869, when, re-elected 



LOUIS JOSEPH BUFFET. I93 

by twenty-three thousand nine hundred and ninety- 
two votes, he became the leader of the Centre Left, and 
now and then bearded the government handsomely. 
When Ollivier was charged with the formation of a lib- 
eral ministry, Buffet was naturally designated for one of the 
portfolios, and be became Minister of Finance, The ple- 
biscite disgusted him so much, however, that he at once 
resigned. He fought against the plebiscitary regime with 
all his might ; was too wise to vote for war against Prussian- 
objected to the government of the Fourth of September, 
and, during the war,' remained at his country home. 

Buffet was elected to the National Assembly of 1871 
from the Vosges by thirty-six thousand one hundred and 
thirty-seven votes. Thiers at once offered him the 
direction of the finances, but he refused it. He had 
hitherto been one of the most admiring followers of 
M. Thiers, but he then became his adversary. He voted 
constantly with the Right ; yet it cannot be said that he 
was interested in the intrigues which led to the president's 
downfall. He was too frank to employ the use of such 
means as his colleagues of the Right found most available. 
He remained a simple deputy until April, 1873, when he 
was elected to the chair of President of the Assembly, va- 
cated by Grevy. He was re-elected to this office six 
times ; and under his presidency Thiers fell, the powers 
of Marshal MacMahon were confirmed and prolonged, 
and the constitutional laws were voted. 

When Buffet left the presidency of the Assembly to form 
the cabinet of March, 1875, and to become Minister of 
the Interior, the country was reasonably satisfied, as he 
was known to have declared in favor of the Republic. 



194 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

Those who hoped for an immediate change from the 
harsh and iron policy of Broghe, however, have been 
grievously disappointed. Buffet has been accused bitterly, 
since he became minister, of shielding the Bonapartists, 
and of giving no liberty. He said, when he took the 
reins of power, that his regime would be strictly conserva- 
tive, but the jealous journalists, as well as the radical and 
ever moderate Republicans have reproached him no little 
for his temerity in asserting the dignity of the Republic for 
which he once professed such a passion. That he did not 
pursue the Imperialist intriguers more earnestly, when the 
inquest on their operations showed the extent of their plot, 
procured for him a good chastisement from Gambetta ; 
and since that time, it is but just to admit, M. Buffet has 
been more conciliatory and less repressive in his policy. 
If he would give himself without fear and trembling to a 
course of action less conservative, and more imbued with 
progressive spirit, he could do France incalculable service ; 
for, with all his faults, he is at heart a sterling Repub- 
lican. 



THE 



Due D'Audiffret-Pasouier. 




NE would not think, to look at the Due D'Audif- 
" fret-Pasquier, as he appeared, when presiding in 
the National Assembly, that he could transfix 
Avith resounding and inspiring eloquence the hearts of a 
tumultuous gathering of seven hundred and fifty people, 
and so electrify them that nearly every one, whether agree- 
ing or disagreeing with the orator's sentiments, paid him 
warm tribute of admiration. The duke is not impressive- 
in appearance ; there is not in his demeanor much of the 
repose commonly supposed to be associated with the state- 
ly surroundings and ample wealth of a dukedom; he is 
nervous, irritable, unequal, and has but little control of 
himself even on very great occasions. The French usually 
accuse him of lack of stability, yet admire and appreciate 
him. -Even the Imperialists, whose bitter enemy he cer- 
tainly is, admit that he is a very able man. 

A stranger standing one day in one of the galleries of 
the Assembly at Versailles, and watching the peculiarities 



196 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

of the session, saw the duke in his chair of office, and 
inquired who he was. 

"That," said the Frenchman next the visitor, "is the 
man who bearded Rouher ! " 

In fact, the duke is better known by his achievement in 
connection with the debate on the bargains made under 
the Empire than by anything else that he has ever done. 
Until the elections in 1871, he was comparatively unknown, 
although he had been an unsuccessful candidate for the 
Corps Legislatifin 1863 and 1869, being vanquished on 
the latter occasion by one of the official candidates, of 
which Napoleon III. always had so many at hand. 
Known as one of the chiefs of the Orleanist party, and as 
a friend and counselor of the Orleans princes, he was 
looked upon with suspicion both by Imperialists Und Re- 
publicans, until he began to prove that he was in favor of 
"liberty, and every liberty," as he had declared in one of 
his electoral circulars. It is not presuming too much to- 
day to predict that he may yet go over to the Republican 
camp, and sit with the Left, not very far from some of the 
men whom he has roundly abused in times past. The tri- 
umph of moderate republicanism would bring him into 
the ranks in which Thiers and Casimir-Perier have so 
frankly placed themselves. Elected from the department 
of the Orne, in February, of 1871, by sixty thousand two 
hundred and twenty-six votes, he went into the Assembly 
as an avowed partisan of the reestablishment of monarchy. 
He occupied a distinguished place among his colleagues 
of the Right, and the Centre Right, and was an important 
member of numerous commissions, as well as president of 
that charged with investigation of the Empire's commercial 



THE DUG D'AUDIFFRET-PASQUIER. I97 

honesty. He was also one of those chiefly concerned in 
negotiating with the Right and with the government the 
abrogation of the laws of exile and the recognition of the 
election of the Orleans Princes. When the project for a 
fusion of all the monarchical parties was broached, the 
duke took an active part in it. He was a member of the 
famous Committee of Nine, and labored hard to bring over 
to his way of thinking many of the most moderate Repub- 
licans. Finding this impossible, and seeing, on the ap- 
pearance of the letter in which the Comte deChambord 
declared fusion impossible, that his hopes of a constitu- 
tional monarchy were dashed to the ground, he confessed 
his error of judgment, and went at work in earnest to 
build up the country under the Republican institutions, 
which he still has not yet fully accepted. 

The supporters of the Empire were accustomed to boast 
that the government of Napoleon HI. had been free from 
corruption, and constantly indulged in prophecies as to 
the epoch of swindling and jobbery which would accom- 
pany the establishment of republican constitutions. As 
soon, therefore, as the Imperialists discovered that the' 
Due d'Audififret-Pasquier, an avowed enemy of Imperial- 
ism, an Orleanist, and a clear-headed, shrewd man of un- 
usual financial ability, was to report on the Empire's war 
contracts, they were ill at ease. They foresaw exactly 
what would happen, and they quaked with terror. Some 
of them endeavored to dissuade the worthy duke from 
making a harsh expose of the Empire's failings ; and re- 
minded him that it was under Napoleon III. that he had 
obtained his dukedom. This is true. D'Audiffret-Pasquier, 
who was born in Paris, in 181 5, is the grand nephew and 



198 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

adopted son of the Chancellor Baron Pasquier, who, hav- 
ing been created duke, obtained the reversion of this 
title upon the head of D'Audiffret, then only a count. 
Napoleon III. confirmed the title, but the new duke does 
not allow that he therefore owed the Empire anything. 
He applied for the confirmation of his tide to the emperor 
just as he would have applied to any other government 
which had then happened to be in power, and it was a 
favor which had no political significance whatever. The 
duke never flattered or pretended to serve Napoleon in 
any manner. He kept aloof from the circle of flatterers 
surrounding the throne, and contented himself with his 
duties in the council-general of his department, with the 
mayoralty of his commune, and with hospitalities in his 
noble Chateau de Sasy, which contains one of the finest 
libraries in France, a library wherein lies hidden much of 
the unpublished history of the Restoration, collected by 
old Chancellor Pasquier. 

Neither reproaches nor ridicule frightened the duke 
from his duty ; and in the famous session of the 4th of 
May, 1872, he read that clear and eloquent report which 
unveiled the meanness of the Empire. The petty swindles 
of the war administration were brought to light ; the fab- 
ricated accounts by which the imperial swindlers had en- 
deavored to cover their tracks were analyzed"; and even 
Rouher blushed for shame when he heard the accusations 
heaped on the Empire by the committee of examination. 
The duke had eloquent figures with which to deal, and 
joining to these a nervous, indignant manner of recount- 
ing the trickeries which he and his colleagues had discov- 
ered, he produced an effect rarely equaled in the history 



THE DUG D AUDIFFRET-PASQUIER. I99 

of Legislative Assemblies. Every honest man felt, from 
the close of D'AudifFret-Pasquier's magnificent peroration, 
that the Empire had been finally tried and found wanting. 
The verdict of decheance was definitely rendered. 

Rouher, of course, felt bound to reply. He did his best 
to show that the Empire was not blameworthy. But the 
Assembly was impatient of his sophistries, and disgusted 
with the arraignment of the government of National De- 
fense in which he indulged, hoping thus to draw attention 
away from the failings of his own party. D'Audiffret- 
Pasquier's triumph was already complete ; but its gran- 
deur was increased when the duke, in a vigorous and elo- 
quent reply to Rouher, condemned the Imperial party 
anew, and cried, in his sharp, shrill voice, "Give us back 
our lost legions ; give us back the glory of our fathers ; 
give us back our provinces ! '' The burst of applause 
which followed the tremendous invective closing wiih 
those words must then have been interpreted as a reading 
of the Empire's death-warrant. But now the Imperialists 
have recovered from their fright. 

In this great speech, the duke paid a splendid compli- 
ment to M. Thiers, and recalled the time 'Svhen, with 
patriotism enlightened by lengthy experience, that great 
citizen had combated all the follies of the Empire." And 
when he fervently declared his hope that Heaven would 
protect France against another visitation of the Empire he 
was acclaimed by the representatives of all parties, except 
the Bonapartists themselves. 

It is generally admitted that the duke made a mistake 
in attacking Gambetta and his republican colleagues, a 
few months afterwards, in a speech which had neither the 



200 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

eloquence nor the excuse of his first effort. Gambetta 
showed himself amply competent for his own defense ; 
and the country was not anxious to see a struggle carried 
on which contributed only to strengthen discords. The 
government had ordered D'Audiffret-Pasquier's mighty 
denunciation of the Empire to be placarded in every Com- 
mune in France ; but there were not even a hundred 
thousand readers to be found for his constant and violent 
attacks upon Gambetta, Naquet, and M. Challemet- 
Lacour. The duke was frequently in the tribune thereaf- 
ter, before he became president of the Assembly, and 
spoke many times in favor of dissolution, but never at- 
tained the height of his first triumph. 

The duke was one of the numerous members of the 
Right who did their best to secure the downfall of Thiers, 
not because of disbelief in his capacity or patriotism, but 
because they thought him an obstacle to the monarchical 
restoration, which they then hoped to accomplish. V/hen 
the Right gained its victory, and Broglie came into power, 
it was said that D'Audiff"ret-Pasquier was much opposed to 
the governmental system invented by Broglie for the 
slaughter of the Republic. A good many members of the 
Right did not like this apparent change of sentiment, and 
one of them, in scoffing mood, said one day : 

" D'Audiffret-Pasquier is like a brilliant piece of fire- 
works, breaking out in a hundred different forms." 

Perhaps it was such antics as the one mentioned above 
which gave the duke his reputation for instability. 

D'Audiffret-Pasquier made a very good president for the 
Assembly. He was never afraid of the immense hydra 
which was always growling and threatening on the floor of 



THE DUG D AUDIFFRET-PASQUIER. 201 

the Versailles theater ; he was prompt to rebuke and to 
quell ; his very nervousness helped him to handle one of 
the most freakish parliamentary bodies in the world. He 
was made president by 418 votes — a sufficient proof of his 
populainty. He was vice-president of the first " Commis- 
sion of Thirty, "and presided over the committee appointed 
to inquire into the condition of the laboring classes — -a 
committee which has as yet done very little work. He 
was also a prominent member, and, in one or two cases, 
president of important political clubs at Versailles. Cath- 
olic, but not clerical in sentiment ; a believer in, and 
moderately honest supporter of some of the new constitu- 
tionar laws ; ambitious, yet not designing ; haughty, yet 
not too proud to correct his opinion if he honestly thinks 
he has been mistaken ; — such is the Due D'Audiffret- 
Pasquier, who is hardly threescore years of age yet, and 
who seems entering with much promise upon that wintry 
period of life when French statesmen are apt to achieve 
their greatest triumphs. 



Jules Armand Stanislas 

DUFAURE. 




DUFAURE is a great lawyer who has been much 
in poHtics during the last half century ; who is 
distinguished by the fact that he is an Academi- 
cian ; that — in these days of universal decoration — he has 
not been decorated ; and that he is Minister of Justice 
under the Republic. He was born at Saujon in the 
Charente-Inferieure, on the 4th of December, 1798 ; 
studied law at Paris, and was admitted to the bar at Bor- 
deaux, where he speedily won both fame and fortune. He 
was a liberal from the outset of his career ; and in those 
troublous times when the Restoration was endeavoring to 
break down the work of the Revolution, he now and then 
found himself in danger. He was on one occasion quietly 
informed that, because of his freedom of speech, the gov- 
ernment intended to accuse him of being implicated in a 
conspiracy recently discovered ; but he kept a bridle upon 
his speech thereafter and escaped trouble. When the 
Bourbons went out of power, Dufaurewas able to say what 



JULES ARMAND STANISLAS DUFAURE. 203 

he pleased, and he said it to such good advantage that the 
electors of Saintes sent him to the Chamber of Deputies in 
1834. He remained there until 1838, as a deputy in the 
ranks of the Constitutional Oppos'tion ; was for a short 
time a member of the Council of State, and became Min- 
ister of Public Works when that office first became a special 
ministiy, at the time of the formation of the cabinet of 
1839. His office was then a very important one. for the 
countiy was agitating the question whether the building of 
railways should be undertaken by the government or by- 
private companies. He had a vast capacity for work ; and 
many of the chief internal improvements in France during 
the last generation and a half are due to the impulse 
given by Dufaure when Minister of Public Works.- 

When the Soult cabinet of 1839 was overthrown by 
Thiers in March, 1840, Dufaure retired temporarily from 
politics. As soon as Guizot succeeded Thiers in power, 
Dufaure was offered his old place in the ministry, but he 
decided that he did not want it, and contented himself 
with grouping around him, year by year, a liberal party., 
which gradually assumed formidable dimensions. In those 
days people said, ' ' Dufaure will certainly be prime min- 
ister after Guizot," and no one who loved liberal senti- 
ments felt inclined to criticise such an appointment. Du- 
faure took no part in the campaign of the reform banquets 
in 1847 and 1848, although he was compelled to separate 
himself on this account from many of his supporters. He 
blamed the banquets and those who attended them as 
foolish and unconstitutional, and declared that he had no 
"sympathy with the liberalism which required to be 
fomented by toasts and after-dinner philippics. Our 



204 BRIEF "BIOGRAPHIES. 

principles/' he added, "need to be advocated in cold 
blood." 

People were not a little surprised when Dufaure went 
over to the Republic after the Revolution of 1848. He 
was elected as representative from the Charente-Inferieure, 
and in the Constituent Assembly voted with the moderate 
republican party. When asked why he who had once 
sworn fealty to the Orleans family, had allowed himself to 
be persuaded to vote for their exile, and for many other 
measures which were nothing less than conservative, he al- 
ways answered, that the government had been imposed 
upon him ; that he had submitted to it from necessity, and 
that he intended to do his best to make it stable. He was 
called after the "days of June" to the then very impor- 
tant post of Minister of the Interior, by General Cavaignac. 
Dufaure threw himself with great energy into the campaign 
for Cavaignac's election to the presidency. He used every 
means in his power — his surpassing eloquence, his knowl- 
edge of political trickery, the press, and ministerial circu- 
lars. When Cavaignac was defeated, Dufaure retired for a 
time from the Department of the Interior. He was re- 
elected from the departments of the Seine and the Charente- 
Inferieure to the Assembly, and chose to represent his own 
department. Shortly after his re-election, Napoleon called 
him back in June, 1849, to the Ministry of the Interior, but 
dismissed him, as well as all his colleagues in the cabinet, 
in October of the same year. Dufaure became an aggres- 
sive enemy of the Empire, and fought it relentlessly in the 
■Assembly until -the coup d'etat, when he retired to private 
life. 

Relinquishing political life for a time, M. Dufaure went 



JULES ARMAND STANISLAS' DUFAURE. 205 

back to the bar, where he soon won fresh distinctions. 
He took one of the fir-st places ; was named a member of 
the council, and later, president-elect of the order of bar- 
risters. His powers were in constant demand, and his in- 
come was sometimes as much as three hundred thousand 
francs yearly. He won most of his cases, and now and 
then a lawyer, on hearing that Dufaure was to plead against 
him, would advise his client to relinquish his suit. The 
able and nonchalant manner in which Dufaure used to 
pounce down upon the indictments drawn by the Imperial 
government, for the prosecution of editors and other peo- 
ple who were troublesome, and the gusto with which he 
tore in pieces those indictments, gave the Empire an un- 
pleasant feeling now and then. 

Dufaure was not, however, content with his work at the 
bar, and was anxious to return to politics. He looked 
back with regret to the days of his former triumphs, when 
he had been a member of the Committee on the Constitu- 
tion ; when he had failed by only a few votes to become 
President of the Assembly ; and when, at the time of Ca- 
vaignac's candidacy, he had fought so fiercely to have the 
country choose "a man, and not a name." In August of 
1868, he once more presented himself, under the patron- 
age of the Liberal Union, in the department of the Var, 
against one of Napoleon's official candidates, as an aspirant 
for a place in the Corps Legislatif He was repulsed by a 
portion of the Republican party, which had not been satis- 
fied with his role as Minister of the Interior in 1848 and 
1849, and he received many thousand votes less than his 
adversary. Somewhat discouraged by this, he did not pre- 
sent himself at the elections of 1869, but accepted ■ the 



206 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

presidency of the committee formed in Paris to sustain the 
candidacy of M. Thiers. Dufaure set his face sternly 
against the plebiscite ; he despised and openly condemned 
the policy of the majority of his political friends, which 
was to recommend to the electors that they should eithef 
give a vote of approbation to the Empire, or abstain alto- 
gether from voting. Voices like that of Dufaure's were 
not listened to then ; the hum and bustle of the court were 
loudest. Perhaps there are many thousands who now re- 
gret that they did not follow the advice of the frosty and 
wily old veteran, who, from the first, had recognized the 
Empire as a sham. 

M. Dufaure was not prominent during the late war. As 
soon as the general elections for the Assembly of 1871 
were ordered, Dufaure was elected from four departments ; 
but he was at once called by Thiers to the Ministry of Jus- 
tice, where he remained a little more than two years. He 
was the only member of the cabinet who was with Thiers 
from his accession to power until his fall. Dufaure was 
often called to defend the policy of the government, espe- 
cially in 1873, against the attacks of its furious enemies; 
and he invariably did it with a power and will astonishing 
in a man long past three score. Although a republican at 
heart, his manner of attacking the Left was frequently in- 
jurious to the cause of the Republic. He struck furious 
blows at the Right, too, and lashed the "dreamers"' with 
the fine lash of his almost matchless irony. His eloquence 
is. remarkable ; it triumphs even over the great faults of 
his harsh voice, and the grimness and sometimes almost 
ferocious reserve which he displays in the Assembly. Cor- 
menin said of him : 



JULES ARMAND STANISLAS DUFAURE. 20/ 

"Whenever he asks for the floor toward the close of a 
day's session, it is because the discussion is wandering, and 
that it is time to bring it to a decisive close. He takes it 
up, and urges it into the proper channels. He builds 
round about its borders the powerful walls of his reason ; 
he winds and turns about his proofs as a housewife whirls 
her distaff in her agile fingers ; he pushes out his threads 
in every direction ; he reassembles them ; he crosses them, 
and from them he weaves such a supple mail, so strong and 
binding, that his adversary, thoroughly enveloped, is bound 
to come down on his knees before the Assembly and avow 
himself vanquished." 

The lawyer's methods are always to be detected in Du- 
faure's political speeches ; he has the sharp suspicious 
ways, the hundred tricks, the capacity for " making points," 
and the relentless manner of pursuing opponents as if one 
meant to drive them into their graves — which belong to his 
profession. He often handles men who affront him very 
much as if he were their executioner. When sarcastically 
analyzing the career of some politician who is opposed to 
him, his whole face lights up with gleams of sardonic fun. 
It is with keen delight, as well as with the practiced hand 
of a master, that he wields the stiletto of satire. 

Dufaure made several noteworthy speeches in the Assem- 
bly during the administration of Thiers. With reference 
to one of them, a Avell-known critic wrote : 

" The tone in which the Minister of Justice pronounces 
his words, and accents his sentences, can never be rendered. 
When he says that the ' message ' has been considered wor- 
thy a ' certain esteem, ' the adjective becomes in his mouth 
a cutting irony for the Right." 



-208 ' " BRIEF -BIOGRAPHIES. 

Even by mctions of his head and by an impetuous lift- 
ing of his shoulders, the venerable statesman manages now 
and then to convey a whole. volume of invective to the vic- 
tims for whom it is intended. 

Shortly before the 24th of May, 1873, Dufaure applied 
all the force of his talent to a speech in which he defended 
Thiers and his government against the attacks of the Right. 
It was a powerful effort, replete with attacks under which 
the c'onspirators of the Right still wince. The veteran 
clearly showed that the Thiers government had, since its 
creation, done everything that could be demanded in the 
interests of order. In that speech, too, he administered a 
stinging rebuke to Broglie, and to others who seemed in- 
clined to aid in destroying the Republic. 

After his downfall in company with Thiers, M. Dufaure 
contented himself with earnest work for the Republic as a 
simple deputy. He sternly refused to accept a portfolio 
from Marshal MacMahon, until he had made it understood 
that he should insist on virtually carrying out the policy of 
M. Thiers. After the constitutional laws were voted, Du- 
faure again took the portfolio of Justice, in the cabinet 
presided over by M. Buffet. One of his first tasks was the 
writing of a circular to all the public prosecutors, explain- 
ing to them their duties under the new laws ; and another 
to the magistrates throughout the country, recommending 
them to abstain absolutely from all political affairs. 

Dufaure will die a good republican, and will probably 
remain in political harness until the day of his death. As 
an academician he is not specially known, having pub- 
lished little, and having made but few speeches at the 
academy, to which he was elected in 1863, replacing the 



JULES A'RMAND STANISLAS DUFAURE. 209 

Duke Pasquier. In the Assembly he voted for the meas- 
ures preliminary to peace with the Prussians ; for^ the 
abrogation of the laws of exile ; for the return of the As- 
sembly to Paris ; and for the constitutional laws. 



^te^^ae8^^^^y''] ^'?^ ^^^ERlM ^^=;;g^^ ^^^^:^»;^^Bi^ 



Emile Ollivier. 




N 1848, — year of blood and thunder, — Emile 
Ollivier, son of Demosthenes Ollivier, republican, 
radical, and honest man, was appointed Commis- 
sioner General of the young French Republic in the depart- 
ments of the Bouches-du-Rhone and .the Var, by Ledru 
Rollin, who loved the father, and trusted the son. Young 
Ollivier, frank, enthusiastic, and fearless, accepted without 
hesitation a mission which might well have frightened an 
older, and wiser man. He entered the turbulent cities of 
Toulon and Marseilles when the hot blood of their southern 
populations was at fever heat. He believed in fraternity, 
and his first work was an attempt to reconcile classes. When 
he reached Toulon, he was tendered a public dinner, " I 
accept," he said, " on condition that this festival shall be- 
come a memorable date in our southern provinces. 
There is in this city a place accursed ; it is the Champ de 
Mars. There all the executions took place in '93. Let us 
meet on that ground where blood has flown, that we may 
seal together a new compact of reconciliation. Let us eel- 



' EMILE OLIJVIER. 211 

ebrate the republic of clemency on the spot where the re- 
public of terror has left its liveliest souvenirs." The young 
envoy's proposition \yas hailed with joy ; and there was a 
veritable love-feast on the field once red with fratricidal 
blood. A hundred thousand voices saluted the youth 
who broiight a message of peace and good-will. 

Emile OUivier was himself a child of the South, and 
filled with the incongruous enthusiasms and sudden in- 
spirations of the local temperament. His father had been, 
from his earliest years, a revolutionist, and a rather un- 
compromising one. He was at once a clever commercial 
man and the enemy of tyrants. Ke was of course eager 
for the success of his son, and supported him by every 
m.eans in his power, during the difficult days when Emile 
was commissioner. Emile's education had been confided, 
while he was yet a child, to Louis Mery, a poet and a 
scholar of brilliant talents. At fourteen, young Ollivier 
went to college, whence he passed to the benches of the 
Law School, where he distinguished Jiimself by many 
brilliant successes. He had just been inscribed on the roll 
of advocates, and was a clerk in a law office in Paris, when 
he was pushed forward into prominence and fame by the 
Republic. 

Young Emile^was a good commissioner. He watched 
over the interests of the naissant republic with commendable 
zeal. He found that a certain M. Thiers was up for elec- 
tion to the Constituent Assembly from the vicinity, and not 
believing that this already famous personage had sufficiently 
recognized the new political order of things, he vigorously 
opposed his election. But he refused to use any undue 
influence to prevent voters from voting as they pleased. 



212 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

He labored earnestly for and with the working classes. He 
organized national cooperative shops. His good sense and 
firmness' prevented the populace from executing m.any pop- 
ular vengeances. On one occasion he snatched from the 
hands of some howling mobs one of their employers whom 
they were about to bury alive. At last he became some- 
what unpopular in Marseilles, because of his refusal to 
sanction riot and anarchy ; and the central republican gov- 
ernment offered him the Ministry at Florence. He refused 
it, and shortly afterwards was appointed prefect of the de- 
partment containing Marseilles. In this capacity he was 
called upon to witness the bloody riots of June, 1848, dur- 
ing which his own life was many times in danger. But he 
was not easily frightened ; he faced excited crov^'ds, and 
talked them down. Thanks to his energy, and to the good 
sense with which he showed the maddened workmen their 
folly, the revolts at Marseilles were quelled, after much 
fighting — before they were fairly begun in Paris. Ollivier 
then proclaimed a- policy of clemency and peace. This 
produced a reaction, and he was accused of complicity in 
the very insurrection which he had aided in stamping out. 
But he resented this accusation to the utmost ; justified 
himself before the assizes court where the insurrectionists 
were tried, and compelled his accusers to retract all their 
accusations. The government expressed fullest confidence 
in him ; but early in 1849 he was removed, to make room 
for some one else, and he decided to go back to his stud- 
ies. He was then hardly twenty- five, and was consequent- 
ly too young to enter as a candidate for legislative honors. 
Ollivier found his health seriously broken by the excite- 
m-ents through which he had passed, and he went on a jour- 



. EMILE OLLIVIER. 21 3 

ney of recreation through Italy. Returning, he became 
entangled in a political campaign in the department of the 
Var, and was brought into court by Baron Haussmann, 
then the resident prefect, under the accusation of having 
opened clubs illegally. When the day of trial arrived, the 
people from all the country-side came trooping in to tes- 
tify their sympathy with Ollivier. The case was adjourned 
for a week, but at the next session the crowd was still 
greater, and the court, fearing trouble, promptly acquitted 
the ex-commissioner of the Republic. 

Returning to Paris, Ollivier threw himself into the law, 
and made a name at the bar by the precocious maturity of 
his thought, and by the elegance and vivacity of his speech. 
He came to blows with the great Berryer, in the celebrated 
case of the Pichus Community against Madame de Guerry, 
and won much fame by the able manner in which he fought 
with the mighty advocate. His family continued to distin- 
guish itself by its devotion to radical sentiment ; his father 
received a term of imprisonment at M-azas, and his brother 
was killed in a duel at Montpellier, growing out of a jour- 
nalistic political controversy. 

At the time of the coup d'etat, Ollivier was at Montpel- 
lier, defending the editors of the paper on which his brother 
had been a writer, before a court into which they had been 
dragged by a governmental prosecution, when he received 
a. message from his father, informing him that the latter 
was summoned before the assizes at Paris, for having wished 
to provoke the overturn of the government of the Repub- 
lic. Emile at once hastened to Paris, fearing that without 
a proper defense his father might be sentenced anew to a 
long term in prison. The young lawyer arrived in the 



214 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

capital on the second of December, and went to his fathers 
house without seeing or hearing anything of the horrors of 
that day. At evening one of his brothers came to tell him 
that Louis Napoleon had usurped the government ; that 
their father had fled. As for Emile himself, his impru- 
dence in coming to Paris saved him from arrest ; he was 
hunted for in Southern France while he remained at liberty 
under the usurper's nose. After the first fury of the revo- 
lution was over, he appeared in public ; the partisans of 
the Empire agreed that it was not worth while to arrest him ; 
but kept his aged father, whom they had caught, long in 
prison, and heaped the most shameful indignities upon 
him. When the old man was released it was only to find 
safety in exile. 

Emile remained in Paris, and endeavored to support his 
father's family. The vengeance of the Imperial faction 
was petty enough to prevent him during some months 
from exercising his profession of the law, and he was re- 
duced to bitter poverty, which lasted long after he was per- 
mitted to resume his practice. It was not until his battle 
with Berryer occurred, that he began to remount the lad- 
der of fortune. 

In 1857, Ollivier was pressed by numerous friends to be- 
come one of the Paris candidates for the Corps Legislatif. 
They met him in the street, made him the offer, and gave 
him five minutes in which to decide. He thought for a 
moment, and accepted. In another moment, according to 
his own acknowledgment, he had regretted it, but his 
friends refused to release him. He was a man of forty- 
eight, and the son of an exiled radical ; he was just the 
man for an opposition candidate, and the newspapers in- 



EMILE OLLIVIER. 21 5 

terested in his election "put him up." He was elected 
on a second ballot, in July of 1857, by eleven thousand 
and three votes from the Fourth Paris circo7iscription, which 
he represented for twelve years thereafter. In his electoral 
circular he had told the "citizens" who elected him, that 
the "epoch of phrases" was past, but he has always been, 
and will be until his dying day, a great phraser. He also 
said, that "in presence of a new situation, we must trans- 
form, and not repeat ourselves." All these sayings were 
received with much enthusiasm at the time. 

M. Ollivier has himself told us that when he entered the' 
Corps Legislatif as a deputy, he had resolved to accept 
neither ministry, place, nor decoration. But he decided 
to take the oath under the new government, and this drew 
down upon him a storm of reproaches. The word "trea- 
son" rung in his ears night and day. However, he entered 
the Corps as one of "The Five" of the Opposition. He 
and his fellows were shunned like lepers. Nearly all the 
other deputies carefully avoided them. On one occasion, 
Ollivier went to speak to a deputy who had been courageous 
enough to recognize him by a nod in the hall of sessions. 
But the deputy, in great consternation, whispered, "Speak 
to me outside : De Morny is looking at us ! " And this 
was the sort of thing which the supporters of democratic 
and liberal principles had to endure for a long period. 

Ollivier's opposition was quite pronounced for some 
time, but even in his earliest days as a deputy there were 
occasional signs of wavering. He had, it is true, the 
courage to say, speaking in 1859 of the Italian expedition, 
that it would be impossible for him and for his colleagues 
to vote for the law aui-horizing it without testifying to a 



2l6 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

confidence in the government which they did not feel 
But it became evident fi-om his speeches and his writings, 
that he was endeavoring to persuade himself to accept the 
Empire, provided that it would guarantee certain reforms. 
There was no longer, after i860, the frank and earnest en- 
mity to the usurper and his motley crew on Ollivier's part 
which the other members of the Opposition never hesitated 
to show. The decree of November, i860, one of those 
seductive and lying "reforms" which Napoleon III. was 
so fond of offering to the French people, gave Ollivier a 
chance to express himself very plainly, and his warm 
praise of the Emperor's policy drew "down upon him once 
more the cry of ' ' treason " from all parts of the republican 
and radical camps. He made use of the following words 
in a speech in the Corps Legislatif : "As for myself, I, who 
am a republican, would support it" (speaking of the still 
more liberal policy which he recommended to the Em- 
peror), " and my support w^ould be all the more efficacious 
because it would be completely disinterested." This was 
enough for Napoleon, who was shrewd and diplomatic in 
his choice of men to execute his plans. Ollivier had an- 
nounced that he was to be had, and the "Imperial ruler 
for \vhom destiny had exhausted all her favors," doubtless 
smiled as he thought, "When Rouher fails, I can still 
cheat the people with Ollivier." 

From 1 86 1 until 1863, Emile Ollivier shaped his course 
with consummate skill. He was still a member of the 
Opposition, b«t was forever proclaiming the ease with 
which the Emperor might make friends of all his enemies 
by inaugurating new reforms. Ollivier's attitude had much 
of assumption in it ; the French, with their keen sense, 



EMILE OLLIVIER. 21/ 

even found it a little ludicrous ; they resented Ollivier's 
air of political Messiah, and caricatured and lampooned 
him mercilessly, but he continually cried reform on the 
house-tops. 

Ollivier participated largely in the campaign of 1863. 
He wrote to the voters in the department of the Var : 
' ' If you are asked what you wish, answer : ' Liberty by con- 
stitutional and legal means, the crowning of the edifice ac- 
cording to the words of the Emperor himself' He sup- 
ported the candidature of M. Thiers, although it made 
him somewhat unpopular. In 1864, when De Morny 
asked him what he thought of one of the ne\vlaws relative 
to the liberties of the working classes, he responded : " The 
law is detestable ; it is only a trap set for the working 
men." In fact, he was profoundly disgusted with the trick- 
ery and meanness of the Empire, and it is impossible that 
he could, after the opportunities for observation that he 
had enjoyed, have ever believed in the sincerity of the 
usurper -who had stolen the real liberties of France. But 
he had wavered, and his firmness was gone forever. He 
took up, nevertheless, the cause of the workmen, and was 
combated b}'' Rouher and the Emperor, who labored hard 
to prevent him from becoming an important member of 
the committee on the proposed reforms. He was elected 
in spite of his formidable opponents, who were, perhaps, 
only adversaries from motives of prudence, not wishing to 
let the people fancy that they recognized an ally in Olli- 
vier. His speeches on the various reform measures as 
they were amended and brought into shape, contained 
such elaborate defenses of the Imperial government, and 
prophesied such a glorious role for it, that even Ollivier's 
10 



2l8 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

friends and fellow-deputies of the Left in the Corps Legis- 
latif began to mutter " treason." 

In December of 1865, Ollivier returning to Paris, after 
a lengthy absence, was approached by De Morny, who 
said that he was willing to adopt a liberal programme, and 
added : "The Emperor is, above all, moved by consider- 
ations of opportunity ; we shall convince him in time, 
perhaps to-morrow ; but we must be ready ; offer a pro- 
gramme, and if we can agree, consent to come back into 
politics in company with Rouher and myself Who will 
blame you, since it will be solely for the purpose of ap- 
plying your own ideas ? " 

Here was a direct proposal, a definite temptation, and 
one for which Ollivier was fully prepared. But he pleaded 
a disinterested attitude, and desired to be allowed to act 
entirely from the outside. He hinted that power and 
place would not please him ; and when De Morny of- 
fered to conduct him to the Tuileries, and to present him 
to the Emperor, he gently put him by, biding his time, 
and filling his mouth with phrases, which, probably, puz- 
zled De Morny not a little. 

After De Morny's death, Rouher approached Ollivier, 
in 1865, and they held several vague and indefinite inter- 
views, each measuring his man. In March, 186% Olli- 
vier was once more brought prominently before the public 
by the great speech in which he announced that the time 
had arrived for the Empire to give liberty. " It is not too 
soon, it is not too late, " said he ; ' ' it is the moment. " 
Shortly afterwards he was sent for by the Empress, and 
went to the Tuileries, where he discussed with her the 
law on strikes, which he had been instrumental in pass- 



EMILE OLLIVIER. 2ig 

ing. In June 1865, he met the Emperor, and urged 
him, according to his own account, to authorize the right 
of public assembly, and to give increased liberty to the 
press. 

The first days of 1867 saw M. Ollivier once more at 
the Tuileries. This time he was offered something like a 
definite place ; but he was ready with a phrase, as usual, 
and said to M. Walewski, who was conducting the ap- 
proaches, " I feel an almost invincible repugnance towards 
quitting my peaceful life of study and meditation to throw 
myself into the struggling life of action." On the noted 
Second of January Ollivier was informed that the Emperor 
would condescend to be liberal if the ex-member of the 
opposition would come boldly over to the Empire. Na- 
poleon even offered to "do something for the press," and 
agreed to certain other reforms. The promises were slen- 
der, and by no means clearly shaped ; but Ollivier found 
them sufficient, and agreed to take Rouher's place as Pre- 
mier, provided that Rouher would not carry out the "new 
programme." OUivier's own programme was a good one ; 
but he well knew that the Empire would never permit him 
to carry it out. Under cover of it, wdth the word ' ' recon- 
ciliation " on his lips, and with a host of platitudes hover- 
ing in his brain, he went straight over to the enemy's 
camp. 

He had an important interview with Napoleon on the 
loth of January, 1867, and was offered a ministry, pro- 
vided he did not want too much reform, but he was still 
coy, and needed a little more wooing. On the 19th of 
January, Napoleon wrote a letter, which was published in 
the Official Joiiriial, announcing his determination to 



220 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

crown the Imperial edifice by numerous liberal reforms. 
M. Rouher was invited to co-operate with Ollivier in the 
new programme, and at first seemed inclined to do so, 
but gradually fell off into open enmity. In July Ollivier 
seemed to have fallen into disfavor, and his relations with 
the Emperor were suspended. But he still went on 
prating of a reconciliation, which was utterly impossible 
while the "irreconcilable " school was growing in power 
and favor daily. 

Ollivier was defeated when the new general elections 
occurred in 1869, and Bancil, the compeer of Gambetta, 
took his place. From that time until the occasion of his 
defense of Clement Duvernois, whose election as an official 
candidate was contested in the liveliest manner, Ollivier 
was but little heard of until the close of the extraordinary 
session of the Corps Legislatif When the ordinary session 
began in December of 1869, the cabinet then in power 
resigned. On the 27th of December, the Emperor ad- 
dressed a letter to Ollivier, begging him to designate per- 
sons who could form with him a homogeneous cabinet, 
faithfully representing the majority of the Corps Legislatif 
After many long debates and struggles, the Ollivier cabinet, 
better known as that of the "Second of January," was 
formed, with Emile Ollivier as Minister of Justice. The 
doughty knight announced that he was about to carry out 
his grand programme _of regeneration of the Empire by 
libert_v, and the debates began. 

The career of M. Ollivier thenceforward is well known. 
He was branded as a renegade by the mass of the republi- 
cans, who never have forgiven him for going over to the 
Empire in 1867. He found stormy times before him in the 



EMILE OLLIVIER. 221 

ministry; the opening- months of 1870 were filled with 
alarms. The riots provoked by the brutal assassination 
of Victor Noir by Pierre Bonaparte seriously alarmed the 
Imperial party, which had already had numerous presenti- 
ments of its impending doom. There were violent scenes 
in the Chamber, and M. Ollivier, who had made his first 
entry into the Legislative Hall as a member of "the Five," 
now rose from his ministerial bench to cry out, when Gam- 
betta and Jules Favre fearlessly criticised the government, 
' ' We are the law, we are the right, we are moderation, we 
are liberty, and if you constrain us we shall be force!" 
These words were pronounced on the nth of January, 
1870. M. Ollivier had accomplished some lively political 
somersaults since 1865. He was inconsistent in rare de- 
gree ; at one moment he was found condemning the sys- 
tem of official candidates, although he had defended Du- 
vernois, and won his place for him ; at another, he was 
seen hard at work in the interest of the plebiscite, whose 
principles he had furiously condemned in his volume en- 
titled "The Nineteenth of January.'"' This situation was 
so humiliating that some of the members of the cabinet 
resigned when the //f'^/ja'/^ was brought forward. Ollivier 
took upon his own shoulders the Ministry of Foreign 
Affairs, and conducted it until the Due de Grammont 
came to the post. 

Napoleon and Ollivier were in a "fool's paradise" for 
some time after the successful result of the plebiscite. 
They fancied that they were secure ; the one confident that 
he would be allowed to cheat anew, and the otherjmagin- 
ing that he would have a long lease of power, in which he 
might succeed in making the Empire liberal, He was re- 



?22 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

posing on his laurels after having made an able speech con- 
testing the repeal of the laws of banishment decreed against 
the Orleans princes, when suddenly the Franco-Prussian 
difficulty arose. Then it was that Ollivier declared, "The 
government desires peace ; it desires it passionately, but it 
desires to maintain it honorably." His old companion in 
the Opposition, M. Favre, daily asked him for particulars 
concerning the negotiations with Prussia, and was daily re- 
fused information. A few days before the declaration. 
Ollivier spoke in such confident terms of the results of the 
approaching war,- that it is evident he fancied the Im- 
perial armies well prepared. After the first defeats, when 
the Prussians were rapidly approaching Paris, his mouth 
was filled with pitiably eloquent phrases, as he endeavored 
to maintain himself in a situation no longer tenable. The 
Chamber laughed him to scorn ; in due time he and his 
fellows resigned, and Count Palikao formed a new cabinet 
under the advice of the Empress regent. Then came Se- 
dan and September, and Ollivier disappeared into the tem- 
porary oblivion which he merited. 

Ollivier is in the prime of life, fifty years old, and may 
yet play an important part in French politics. But for 
Frenchmen of " this generation he is dead. Whether or 
not he was a* traitor, they will always consider him as such. 
His vast vanity does not permit him to believe that he was 
misled in attempting to reconcile the Empire and liberty, 
and he delights in assuming the air of a martyr, and in 
looking down from the serene heights of his contempt 
upon those who criticise him, and consider his career a 
failure. He is fond of defending himself, and would be 
very glad to get back into political life, although he would 



EMILE OLLIVIER. 223 

be roundly abused by both Imperialists and Republicans. 
He recently published a volume called "Principles and 
Conduct," which led a malicious Paris journal to say that 
its author never possessed either. In this volume he de- 
fends himself against the Imperialists, who pretend that his 
liberal quackeries were one of the chief causes of the Em- 
pire's fall. Napoleon, it seems, maintained his esteem for 
Ollivier until the last, and wrote him a highly complimen- 
tary letter from Chalons, in August, 1870. 

The ex-commissioner of the Republic, ex-deputy, and 
ex-minister of the Empire, is a mild-looking man, with 
spectacled eyes, and rather unprepossessing face. His 
oratory is effective, although not remarkable ; his literary 
style is clear, but pedantic. He has written much on 
legal subjects. As a lawyer, he was so popular in his early 
days, when the Empire suspended him, that the whole 
Paris bar protested against his suspension. M. Ollivier 
has been twice quarried ; his first wife was a woman of 
brilliant abilities, and the malicious used to say that she 
aided him in the preparation of his speeches. She is said 
to have been an illegitimate daughter of the Abbe Liszt. 
The second wife is a lady of wealth, and the ex-statesman 
is reposing quite at his ease, much as M. Rouher is, and 
waiting the progress of events. 



Jules Favre. 




FAVRE has the reputation of being one of the best- 
abused men of his time. Yet while there is a large 
class which can never hear his name mentioned 
without at once proceeding to scandalize it, it is certain that 
the noted lawyer, the brilliant orator, and the prominent 
member of the " Government of National Defense" has a 
vast number of admirers, and will leave behind him a last- 
ing fame. He bids fair, too, to outlive the passions of his 
epoch ; and may possibly compass that lot so rare for mor- 
tals — that of being reckoned a prophet, not without honor 
in his own country, during his lifetime. He has always 
been an ardent champion of popular rights, and, however 
much the people may at times be weaned from him, is sure 
of their lasting sympathy and regard. Much of his best 
effort has been devoted to the defense of the unfortunate 
and down-trodden. He has shown, in a hundred instances, 
~a rare carelessness of self, which is its own highest praise. 
As a struggling young lawyer, he was brave enough to de- 
fend the accused of the affair of April, 1834. As a success- 



JULES FAVRE. 225 

ful politician and advocate, he was not afraid to undertake 
the defense of a man so much under the ban as Orsini ; 
and, as a member of the government, he was willing to 
swallow his own pride for his country's sake, and to treat 
with the enemy for the capitulation which was inevitable. 

Gabriel Claude Jules Favre was born March 21st, 1809, 
in the busy and turbulent city of Lyons. His father was 
a small commercial man, possessed of sufficient means to 
insure the education of his son for the legal profession. 
Young Favre studied, in Paris ; took part in the revolution 
of 1830 there; and, going home to Lyons after his law 
studies were finished, gave evidence of his liberal and dem- 
ocratic predilections by undertaking, in 1831, the defense 
of a society of workingmen prosecuted for illegal associa- 
tion. The fiery language of the young orator, who was 
then, as now, one of the most eloquent of Frenchmen, 
created a veritable revolution. There was a bloody con- 
flict between the working masses of the city and th*e sol- 
diers of the garrison. Favre Vv'as concerned in it, and it 
was almost miraculous that he should have escaped pun- 
ishment afterwards for the participation in the rioi"S. No 
harm came to him ; and his fame widened and his elo- 
quence increased. In 1834 he went to Paris to defend the 
accused in the noted prosecution of workingmen of that 
year. He stood up before the Chambre of Peers unabashed, 
and opened one of the finest speeches on record with these 
four words ; "lama republican." It was a sore check 
for him when he found that all his eloquence was in vain ; 
that he had lost his case, having unfortunately brought 
himself into opposition with the Committee of. Defense 
of that period ; and his chagrin was so great when com- 
10* 



226 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

pelled to listen to the condemnation of those whom he 
loved and had desperately defended, that he retired for 
sdme time from both politics and public affairs generally. 
At last, however, he returned to his labors, and was soon 
famous again as the defender of all persons accused of 
political offenses. He had had too many narrow es- 
capes to be easily frightened, and did his work boldly. 
Perhaps he was a bit of a fatalist in those youthful days ; 
the manner in which he exposed himself to the vengeance 
of the enemies of liberalism might prompt one to think so. 

He made a short essay in journalism, taking the politi- 
cal direction of the sprightly paper known as " The Move- 
ment," at the time that Lamennais resigned its chief edi- 
torship ; but he was not successful. The journal lived but 
a short time, although Favre's sentiments were as boldly 
announced in its columns as when, in his student days, he 
wrote to the National demanding the abolition of royalty, 
and the convocation of an Assembly. But if he did not 
succeed as an editor, his little visit to the newspaper world 
helped him as a lawyer ; he soon had a large number of jour- 
nals to defend ; his business grew to gigantic proportions. 
Some of the speeches made in those days when he was 
battling for ■ freedom have the ring of veritable war-cries ; 
many are stately and dignified in form, full of sound sense 
and faultless logic, animated by a hidden fire which com- 
municates its heat even to him who reads them from the 
printed page. 

In 1848 Jules Favre announced his profession of faith 
as follows : "Liberty is the free exercise of all the facul- 
ties bestowed upon us by God, governed by our reason. 
Equality is the participation of all citizens in social advan- 



JULES FAVRE. 22f 

tages, without other distinction than virtue and talent. 
Fraternity is the law of love, uniting men and making all 
members of one family." The lawyer and orator had ar- 
rived at the ripe age. of forty-two when the revolution broke 
out. He was at once recognized by the radical party as 
a necessity. He became Secretary-General of the Ministry 
of the Interior, and to him at the time was commonly at- 
tributed the editing of numerous circulars signed by Ledru 
Rollin, documents of such an ultra-revolutionary charac- 
ter that they provoked the wildest agitation in some de- 
partments, and threw the whole country into ferment. 
M. Favre has expressly denied any share in the prepara- 
tion of the circulars, and it is generally admitted to- 
day that he filled his difficult office in those troublous 
times very well. Among other accusations of the period 
against him, it was asserted that he had appointed to high 
office persons who had been convicted of criminal offen- 
ses ; but this was simply a vulgar and poorly-contrived 
falsehood. He resigned his position to take a seat in the 
National Assembly, to which he had been elected from 
the Department of the Loire by thirty-four thousand 
two hundred and sixty votes ; and at the same time 
he addressed a letter to all the prominent journals, 
announcing that he had retired definitely from the 
duties of an office-holder, and would in future content 
himself with the responsibilities of a deputy. But" he was 
persuaded, later, to become Secretary-General to the Min- 
ister of Foreign Affairs. In the Assembly he was a marked 
man. His sublim^e orator}', his matchless felicity of expres- 
sion, gave him immediate and great fame. He prepared 
the report of the committee which had the matter of Louis 



228 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

Blanc's impeachment under consideration, and was in fa- 
vor of that measure. When it was defeated he resigned, 
but was prevailed on to remain in office. He was a mem- 
ber of the radical party, yet always felt at liberty to act 
outside of it whenever he chose. He was no formalist, 
and the lack of formalism in his political career doubtless 
made him many enemies. He proposed the measure for 
the confiscation of the personal Avealth of Louis Philippe. 
Long before the roup d'etat he was a conspicuous figure in 
the political arena ; and those who were hostile to him 
delighted to paint him in blackest colors. 

When the second Empire was established, Favre betook 
himself to his law practice. He was a steadfast and per- 
sistent enemy of " the nephew of his uncle."' He dared even 
to plead Orsini's defense, and did it so superbly that some 
people almost fancied the would-be assassin had justice on 
his side. He refused to take the oath of allegiance to the 
Imperial power when elected a member of the Councils- 
General of the Loire and Rhone in 1852, but he took it 
in 1858, when he was elected to the Corps Legislatif from 
the sixth circonscription in the department of the Seine. 
He h,ad previously made an unsuccessful attempt, in an- 
other department, to get into the Corps, that he might 
help, in their valorous struggle, the small band which the 
Imperialists were wont scornfully to say was "few in 
number,' and noticeable only for the audacity of its pre- 
tensions." When he first entered politics under the Em- 
pire, Napoleon and his adherents were not a little star- 
tled, for the defender of Orsini was likely to be, as indeed 
he proved himself, a formidable member of the Opposition, 
His voice was heard often, and in fearless condemnation 



k 



JULES FAVRE. 22g 

of many Imperial measures. The Imperialists cavil at him 
because, as they sa_y, he voted for the credit of one 
million two hundred thousand francs for the Italian 
expedition, yet blamed the conduct of that expedi- 
tion ; and because he finally took the oath prescribed 
by the Constitution of 1852, after having once re- 
fused to do so. They have always endeavored to create 
the impression that M. Favre is inconsistent, vacillating, 
and worthless as a politician, but it is certain that he con- 
tributed, in no small degree, to hasten the Emperor's 
downfall, and that it was for no other purpose that he hu- 
miliated himself enough to consent to sit in the Corps Le- 
gislatif He made great speeches on the policy of France 
with regard to Italy ; on Algerian and Roman affairs ; on 
the liberty of the press; and in 1864, when the "law for 
general surety " was under discussion, he delivered an ad- 
dress which made him new and permanent fame through- 
out Europe. At the general elections in 1863, he was 
elected deputy for the two departments of the Rhone and 
the Seine, and cliose to represent the former. Thence- 
forward until the declaration of the Republic, in Septem- 
ber of 1870, he was almost constantly in politics, and was 
among those who denounced the pretended reforms and 
the so-called "liberal" trickeries of the tottering Napole- 
onic dynasty. 

Favre was at his best when his sympathies were thor- 
oughly enlisted in behalf of an oppressed people, or a 
persecuted individual. When pleading for such a cause, 
his face glowed with inspiration. He wrote on such sub- 
jects as well as he spoke in the vigorous days of his mid- 
dle life. A little work which he published many years be- 



230 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

fore the creation of the Second Empire, and called 
" Anathema," contained touching pictures of the suffer- 
ing and the sin caused by social disorder. He was bitterly 
oppressed with the consciousness that the world was going 
wrong, and that some strong redeeming force was needed 
both in politics and in the Church to set it right. He was 
anxious for the unity of Italy, and the freedom of Rome, 
and spoke well in their favor. He took, .as he still takes, 
a genuine interest in social science, and made many ef- 
forts for the amelioration of some penal laws. In the 
Corps Legislatif, he now and then showed that he had a 
good head for financial matters, and made some lucid 
speeches, filled with facts, on the commercial condition of 
the country. He has always been too busy to write much, 
and his published works consist mainly of his most cele- 
brated speeches, and some of his early pamphlets on politi- 
cal and social topics. Those who have read his addresses 
on the reestablishment of the restrictions of liberty of the 
press, on the Proudhon proposition, and on the Italian ex- 
pedition, cannot have failed to recognize true genius in 
them. His reputation as a member of the bar has grown 
steadily since 1834, and in i860 he was made a ^a^wn^r 
of the order of Paris advocates. 

In 18^9, and early in 1870, the opposition in the Corps 
Legislatif to the Imperial policy was very powerful, and 
M. Favre distinguished himself by the manner in which 
he organized and conducted a campaign against " official 
candidatures" and the other devices of the Empire for 
cheating the people out of their liberties. It was Favre 
who " interpellated " the government a few months before 
the Franco-Prussian war, as to the Imperial contempt for 



JULES FAVRE. 23 1 

the rights of the chamber, and who made the motion 
by which it was demanded that -the attributes of con- 
stituent power should belong exclusively to the Corps 
Legislatif. He knew the folly and sinfulness of precipitat- 
ing a declaration of war with Prussia, and voted against it 
on the 4th of September, 1870. He was a conspicuous fig- 
ure in the Corps Legislatif during the declaration of the 
downfall of the Imperial family ; and on the same day 
was proclaimed the choice of the people for one of the mem- 
bers of the Provisional Government of National Defense, 
He became the TMinister of Foreign Affairs, and went ear- 
nestly at his work somewhat too confidently, perhaps ; for 
when he met Bismarck at Ferrieres, to discuss the possi- 
bility of negotiations for peace, he assured the conqueror 
that the French people would deliver to the Prussians 
neither an inch of their territory, nor a stone from their 
fortifications. He was diligent in efforts for a conference 
of the great powers with regard to the war, and at one time 
contemplated appearing before it, and pleading the cause 
of his own unfortunate country. He had great confidence 
in Gambetta, and kept him encouraged in his desperate 
efforts to raise an army in the South of France, by letters 
and dispatches which are models of statesmanlike clearness 
and precision, yet which are interesting as romances can 
be to the general reader. 

Jules Favre was one of the principal participants in the 
most interesting historical episode of modern times, tha 
negotiation for the capitulation of Paris. He has given 
the world, in his " Simple Recital" of the thrilling events, 
and the difficulties attendant upon the siege, a graphic 
picture of the interviews which he held with Bismarck. His 



232 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

government was hardly recognized by the Prussians as any- 
thing save a band of illegitimate dictators. Moltke even 
defended himself for having begun the bombard nent of 
Paris without proper announcement by saying that he did 
not feel obliged to confine himself to ordinary usage in 
treating with a government which had no rights. Bis- 
marck had long shown in his correspondence, that he con- 
sidered the little band of national defenders as a faction, 
and accused them of desiring to prolong their dictatorship 
by a continuation of the war. 

This was enough to cast a gloom over the stoutest 
heart. But M. Favre, at the moment that he decided to 
set out for Versailles, in the bleak winter weather of Jan- 
uary, 1871, knew that a formidable revolt was in prepara- 
tion in Paris. Its supporters had already made two des- 
perate attempts, in October and in January, to wrest the 
power from the Government of National Defense ; and 
might be expected at once to take advantage of any new 
embarrassments of those at the head of affairs. The troops 
massed for the defense had bee,n unsuccessful whenever 
they had attempted to raise the siege ; and the provisions 
could last only a short time. M. Favre was so often 
haunted by the terrible thought that the revictualing of 
Paris might be delayed too long, that he passed many 
sleepless nights. 

Favre informs the world frankly that he decided to go 
to Versailles, and consult with the conquerors, simply be- 
cause he wished to escape an out-and-out surrender, which 
daily became more probable. In his own mind he had 
laid down, as the cardinal points of the demand to be 
presented to Prince Bismarck, an armistice, the election of 



1 



JULES FAVRE. 233 

an Assembly, in order that France might be consulted as 
to her wishes for the future, assurances that the Prussian 
victors would not enter Paris, that the National Guard 
should be allowed to retain its arms, and that none of its 
members should be taken as prisoners to Germany. He 
has been bitterl)' reproached by his adversaries for exact- 
ing the stipulation with regard to the arms of the National 
Guard, it being alleged that, had a disarmament occurred, 
the communal insurrection would have been rendered 
impossible ; but it is certain that he acted wisely ; for, 
had he proposed to disarm the two hundred thousand at 
that time, he would have succeeded only in hastening the 
dreaded communal revolt. 

The insurrection of the 2 2d of January, headed by 
Flourens, and baptized in blood, decided M. Favre on 
immediate action. On the evening of the 23d, as soon as 
the sedition was quelled, he addressed a note to Bismarck, 
asking for an interview, without explaining the motive. 
At dawn an officer took the note to the outpost at the 
Sevres bridge, requesting an immediate answer. On the 
24th the Government invested M. Favre with plenary 
powers, a.nd then anxiously awaited the response of the 
victors. The day was somber and filled with alarms. 
Heavy fogs overhung the capital ; the streets were covered 
with sleet ; the cannonade from forts and ramparts was 
more furious than usual ; shells rained upon the town. 
After many hours of suspense, M. Favre received an an- 
swer from Bismarck, appointing an interview for either the 
morning of the 25th, or the evening of the 24th. Ac- 
companied by his son-in-law and a young officer, he set 
out without a moment's delay for Versailles. Learning 



234 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

that the National Guard, alarmed at the rumors of Favre's 
departure, wished at all hazards to stop him, the trio did 
not go by the ordinary route, but took a by-path, and at 
six o'clock were at the Sevres bridge over the Seine. The 
firing had ceased, by order from both sides. At that 
point, M. Favre and his companions were embarked in a 
skiff, and crossed the Seine, pushing their way through 
masses of floating ice, which were illuminated by the glare 
of the flames in the burning town of Saint-Cloud. 

At Sevres M. Favre found a carriage, escorted by cav- 
alry, and at eight in the evening he was at Versailles, at 
the hotel of Madame de Jesse, occupied by Bismarck, 
who did not keep him waiting. M. Favre told him that 
he came to begin where he had left off at Ferrieres ; drew 
him a vivid picture of the sufferings of the Parisian popu- 
lation ; and, finally, asked what were the conditions of an 
honorable surrender. 

"You are too late," cried Bismarck, hastily ; "we have 
treated with your Emperor ; as you neither can, nor wish 
to make any promises on the part of France, you will 
easily understand that we shall seek the most efficacious 
means of finishing the war." 

M. Favre's surprise and indignation, as Bismarck in- 
formed him of the numerous schemes proposed for restor- 
ing the Imperial Dynasty to power, may be imagined, but 
not described. The discussion with Bismarck was long 
and exhausting. Favre at last wrote down the stipulations 
which he thought necessary to insist upon, and gave them 
to the German Chancellor, with the understanding that 
they were only for his private use. 

The discussions continued at intervals until the 26th, 



JULES FAVRE. 235 

M. Favre suffering the most cruel anxieties, during his 
temporaiy absences from Paris, as to the events which 
might occur while the negotiations were pending. On 
the evening of the 26th, there seemed some chance of an 
agreement between conquerors and conquered ; and Bis- 
marck, accompanying Favre to his carriage, said, impul- 
sively : 

" I don't believe that, at the point we have now reached, 
a rupture is possible ; if you consent, we will stop the 
firing this evening." 

Favre accepted this concession gratefully, and went 
home at once to give the order commanding a cessation 
of the bombardment from the French side. 

It was late in the evening when he recrossed the Seine. 
As the artillerymen in the French lines had not been in- 
formed of his passage, they were keeping up a lively rain 
of shell on the Sevres bridge, and two shells fell close to 
Favre's carriage. As soon as the worn-out minister 
reached Paris he saw General Vinoy, and issued the nec- 
essary order. The emotions which filled his heart that 
night are best described in his own words : 

"At fifteen minutes before midnight, I was on the 
stone balcony of the Ministry of Foreign Aff"airs, which 
overlooks the Seine. The cannon of our forts and those 
of the German army still m.ade their formidable echoes 
heard. At last the hour of midnight sounded. A final 
explosion burst forth, repeated far away by an echo, which 
grew feebler and then died out ; then all was silence. This 
was the first real repose for many weeks ; it was the first 
symptom of peace since the commencement of the foolish 
war, into which we had been hurried by the infatuation 



236 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

of a despot and the servility of his courtiers. I remained 
for a long time absorbed in thought. I believed that the 
slaughter had ceased^ and, despite the sorrow which 
weighed me down, this thought was a relief; I did not 
foresee that behind this bloody curtain, now lowered, our 
own disasters, greater calamities, and more lamentable hu- 
miliations were concealed." 

Every one remembers that the terms of the armistice did 
BOt permit M, Favre to realize his hope that the German 
troops would not be allowed to enter Paris. Bismarck did 
not seem inclined to insist upon this crowning disgrace 
for the French ; but the King and the military party were 
determined upon it. No man in France could have 
labored more eloquently and with more dignity to preserve 
his native land and its capital from needless shame, than 
did M. Favre. Few men could have met with unruffled 
front and serene politeness the haughty German, whose 
nature continually prompted him to provoking excesses of 
language, and whose miraculous success had given him 
overwhelming confidence. It was the fashion during and 
for a long period after the war, to cavil at M. Favre's ad- 
ministration of his important office ; but sober judgment 
admits that he was the man for the pl'ace and the time. 

On the evening-'of the 28th of January, 1871, at ten 
o'clock, M. Favre signed the agreement to an armistice, 
and was permitted to send a telegram to the delegation of 
the Government of National Defense at Bordeaux, an- 
nouncing an armistice of twenty-one days, and the convo- 
cation of the Assembly for the 12th of February. He 
then hastened back to Paris with a mortal terror at his 
heart. The terms of the treaty which he had just signed 



JULES FAVRE. 23/ 

provided for freedom to revictual the capital, but it was 
possible tliat the needed provisions would come too late. 
M. Favre telegraphed to London, to Antwerp, to Dieppe, 
instructions to buy and forward food as rapidly as possible ; 
but the directors of the different French railroads, sum- 
moned in council, informed M. Favre that, however great 
might be their efforts, Paris must be several days without 
food ! 

The unfortunate Minister hastened back to Versailles, 
There he saw Bismarck, and told him that he had deceived 
him as to the duration of the resources of Paris, and that 
the population was literally in danger of absolute starva- 
tion. Favre says that Bismarck was much moved ; that he 
promised to do all that he could to hasten transportation, 
and that he even put at the disposition of the French such 
provisions as the Prussian army could spare. 

The revictualment took place, and fortunately in time 
to prevent the horrible mortality feared. M. Favre found 
occasion to respond in warm messages of thanks to the 
kindness of neighboring nations. 

He was intimately concerned with M. Thiers in the sub- 
sequent negotiations for peace with the Prussians. As 
soon as the Assembly was established at Bordeaux, he 
was appointed by the Government of National Defense, 
to hand in their collective resignation. When he mounted 
into the tribune there was a general murmur of respectful 
surprise among all who knew him personally, so worn and 
aged had he grown under the influence of the excitements 
and trials to which he had been subjected. He went down 
from the tribune like a man from whose shoulders a 
crushing burden had been lifted ; and he doubtless would 



238 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

have been glad to escape from the responsibiHty with 
which he was honored in the new cabinet chosen by M. 
Thiers, that of holding the portfolio of foreign affairs. 
He was in Paris during the early days of the Commune, 
but, as soon as the revolutionary committee began its 
work, he, with the other members of the Cabinet, retreated 
to Versailles. He was prominent in measures for the sup- 
pression of the revolt, and, so long as he remained in the 
ministry, was active and discreet in managing the difficult 
and delicate relations of France with Germany. He was 
elected to the Assembly in 1871 from numerous depart- 
ments — a pretty fair test of a French politician's popular- 
ity ; — but he has not been noticeable in politics of late. 
His work on the "Government of National Defence" has 
occupied most of his attention for the past year or two. 

Personally, Favre is a man above medium size, with a 
grave, sweet, very dignified face. His nature is sensitive, 
and he has probably suffered a great deal from the bit- 
ing invective and the scandalous reports to which he has 
been subjected. His presence in the legislative tribune 
is commanding, and he is always listened to with the 
respect and admiration which his exquisite French and 
charming oratory command. 



The Comte de Chambord. 




]LL for France, by France, and with France ! " in- 
cessantly cries the Comte de Chambord, Due de 
Bordeaux, grandson of Chiles X., and pre- 
tender to kingship by right divine over the French. The 
pious and worthy Legitimist standard-bearer doubtless fails 
to see the inconsistency of employing a device thoroughly 
republican in character, as a rallying cry for monarchists 
of the antique pattern. Neither is it probable that he has 
ever for a moment appeared to himself in that rather ab- 
surd light in which the mass of enlightened and unpre- 
judiced Frenchmen see him. Wedded to his idea, firmly 
vested in his imaginary right, he moves aloof from the 
bustling republican mobs which might perhaps jostle him 
rudely ; and passes his time in devotion, and in the pro- 
duction of somber and severely classical manifestoes signed 
with a kingly flourish, " Henri." 

The noble count is never seen in public devoid of what 
the French call the '■^ air soiiffrantT There is a terrible 
resignation upon his features which impresses, as it is in- 



240 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

tended to impress, all beholders. It seems to say, "Here 
am I, Henri, King of France, the child of the miracle, 
baptized in the water of the Jordan ; here am I, debarred 
of my rights, and condemned to retirement, yet ready and 
willing to save France from the abyss which threatens her, 
if she will but give me yonder bauble of a crown." But 
the pretty jade France, with the Phrygian cap crowning her 
disheveled locks, keeps the diadem so much longed for 
under lock and key, and laughs at the distress of the grand- 
son of Charles X. 

Chambord is one of the last of the apostles of the doc- 
trine of "right divine" in Europe. The doctrine is bred 
in his bone ; nothing — no lesson of revolution, no pros- 
perity of France under republican institutions — can ever 
change him. A fioe scorn of the modern vulgarity which 
consents to the leveling process is visible in all he writes ; 
he disclaims citizenship, and assumes that he is a king, 
the king. It is true, as he himself has said, that he has 
always and everywhere shown himself accessible to French- 
men of all classes and conditions ; but it is also true that 
he has done this invariably as monarch, not as fellow-citi- 
zen. "How," he cries, "could any one suspect me of 
wishing to be only the king of a privileged class, or, to 
employ the terms commonly used — the king of the old 
regime, of the ancient nobility, and the ancient court ? " 
How, indeed ? Far prettier to be king over all — over no- 
bleman-bourgeois, and man of the people — and that is 
exactly what Henri, Comte de Chambord, ardently de- 
sires. 

He looks upon France with a species of tender pity, or 
reproachful sympathy, which, strangely enough, becomes 



THE COMTE DE CHAMBORD. 24I 

food for inextinguishable laughter among the radicals, and 
is regarded with profound indifference by moderate repub- 
licans. In each new symptom of departure from the old 
ways he finds occasion for a fresh outburst of commisera- 
tion. In October of 1870, he wrote " Do not allow your- 
selves to be carried away by fatal illusions. Republican 
institutions, which may possibly correspond to the aspira- 
tions of new societies, will never take root upon our old 
monarchical soil." Later, in his famous letter in which 
he assumes the title of "Henri," he apostrophizes the 
white flag, which is the object of his passionate adoration. 
"I received it as a sacred trust from the old king my 
ancestor, when he was dying in exile ; it has always been 
for me inseparable from the remembrance of my absent 
country — it waved above my cradle ; and I wish to have it 
shade my tomb ! " This is fine ; but a moment afterwards, 
one reads in the same letter, "In the glorious folds of this 
stainless standard, I will bring you order and liberty." 
He cannot help reminding the French once more that 
they are doing themselves a great injury in refusing him 
his kingship. 

Henri Charles Ferdinand Marie Dieudonne L'Artois, 
Due de Bordeaux, was born on the 29th of September, 
1820. He is the son of the Due de Berri, who was assas- 
sinated in February of the same year ; and of Caroline, 
Princess of the Two Sicilies, the famous Duchesse de Berri. 
The mother, whose role in history was destined to be a 
famous one, was a woman of extraordinary force of char- 
acter. She was beautiful, frank, simple in her manners, 
and her beauty was heightened by a melancholy which 
never left - her features. Partisan scandal was unusually 
II 



242 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

mean on the occasion of the birth of Chambord ; it even 
ventured to hint that there was room for doubts as 
to the reality of the confinement of the duchess. But 
tlie mother prevailed upon the attendants to introduce 
thirty or forty witnesses into her chamber soon after 
her delivery ; and these people, who were taken at hazard 
from the ranks of the Parisian National Guard, soon 
set the slanderers to shame. The duchess appeared on 
the balcony of the Tuileries on the afternoon of the day 
of the child's birth, with the infant in her arms, to show 
the people that it was realh^ her own. Diplomats came to 
congratulate the mother ; the water of the Jordan, which 
good Chateaubriand had brought in a bottle from the 
East, where he had been journeying and writing rhapso- 
dies, was sprinkled on the august baby ; and Lama-rtine 
wrote a poem on the "Child of the Miracle." In the 
London newspapers there appeared a protest against the 
legitimacy of the new pretender to the French crown, and 
this protest was signed by a French prince. The name of 
Henry V. was often heard in the Legitimist salons ; and 
the press was filled with anecdotes of the good King Henry 
IV., and the desirability of giving him a legitimate suc- 
cessor. Meantime, the Bourbons went on tottering to their 
fall. 

Young Henri had a pleasant and comparatively une- 
ventful childhood. When he was a year old, a national 
subscription resulted in securing for him the chateau of 
Chambord as a home. He was educated under the Dukes 
de Montmorency, de Riviere and de Damas. By the last- 
named instructor he was thoroughly trained in the princi- 
ples of the ancient monarchy, and his mind was set 
7 



THE COMTE DE CHAMBORD. 243 

against modern progress and modern infidelity. At ten 
years of age, he was a pious, thoughtful child, well edu- 
cated, in politics as well as in books. The Revolution of 
1830 grumbled over the head of the venerable Charles 
X., who resolved to abdicate in favor of Henri, and wrote 
the following letter to the Duke of Orleans from Ram- 
bouillet : 

"I resolve to abdicate in favor of my grandson, the 
Duke of Bordeaux. The Dauphin, who shares my senti- 
ments, also renounces his rights in favor of his nephew. 
Your duty will therefore be, as lieutenant-general of the 
kingdom, to proclaim the accession of Henry V. to the 
crown. " 

This letter was written on the 2d of August, 1830. The 
old king did more : he caused a proclamation, signed by 
"Henry Fifth/' to be distributed among the troops en- 
camped at Rambouillet. But the Due d'Orleans, although 
he professed willingness to see the boy prince seated on the 
throne, took many measures to prevent it, and one day 
the people of Paris made a hasty journey toward Ram- 
bouillet, manifesting their displeasure as they went along. 
Charles X. did not wait to see them ; he and his family 
hastened to Cherbourg, whence they sailed for Eng- 
land. The advisers of the young prince considered it best 
that he should also quit France, and he followed his grand- 
father to Holyrood in Scotland. He was accompanied by 
the Due de Damas, who trained him in the most austere 
ways. The Scotch climate was too harsh for all of the 
exiles, and they therefore sought a more genial refuge in 
Southern Austria. The Duchesse de Berri did not accom- 
pany them ; she was frantic with indignation at what she 



244 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

termed the cowardly usurpation of the Due d'Orleans, and 
vowed a vow, that she would take from him by violence 
the throne -which he had stolen from her son by intrigue. 
She fulfilled her threat if not her vow, by her wild and 
courageous conduct in the Vendean insurrection, which 
she was mainly instrumental in fomenting. In 1832, when 
she was imprisoned in the fortress of Blaye, because of the 
part which she had taken in La Vendee, the young prince 
was much with her, and listened with tearful enthusiasm 
to the recital of her exploits. One day, Chateaubriand came 
to the fortress, and the child, a dozen years old, was amazed 
to hear himself addressed by the great writer as "King." 

As he arrived at years of discretion, young Chambord 
undertook long journeys in Europe, in which he was ac- 
companied by generals and dukes devoted to the Legiti- 
mist cause. He visited the military establishments of Aus- 
tria, Hungarj', Germany, Lombardy, the States of Rome 
and of Naples, and was received in each of these countries 
with all the honors due a sovereign. These excursions, 
which gave him a wide acquaintance with European politics, 
and gained him many sympathizers, were interrupted in 
1 84 1 by a fall from his horse, which fractured his left 
thigh, and made him a prisoner for a long tim.e. In 1843 
he resumed his tour in search of sympathy ; visited Saxony, 
Prussia, and Great Britain. In November of 1843, he an- 
nounced himself openly as an active claimant to the French 
throne. It was in this month also that the famous Belgrave 
Square reception occurred — a reception which caused in- 
tense excitement throughout France. The Legitimist 
deputies crossed the channel to see him, and to salute him 
as their sovereign. Belgrave Square was transformed into 



A 



THECOMTE DE CHAMBORD, 245 

the semblance of a court, where royal etiquette Avas ob- 
served. Chateaubriand, the mighty Berryer, the Dues de 
Fitzjames and de Valmy, M. de Pastoret, and others were 
among these deputies, and then received no severer reproof 
than newspaper scoldings and the frowns of the Opposition. 
In 1844, the pilgrims to Belgrave Square found their visit 
qualified, in the parliamentary address, as a "culpable 
manifestation," and therefore resigned their seats, only to 
be at once returned by the Legitimist voters who had 
originally elected them. 

The death of Charles X. left the Comte de Chambord 
the chief of the eldest branch of the house of the Bour- 
bons. In November of 1846 he married the eldest daugh- 
ter of the Due de Modena, Marie Therese Beatrix 
Gaetano, who brought him a dowry amounting to many 
millions of francs. For a time he renounced his political 
ambitions, and the happy pair went to live in the Castle of 
Frohsdorfif, not far from Vienna, in Austria. Around 
them gathered a highly cultivated and enthusiastically 
orthodox society, which the Legitimists were wont to call 
the "true France," professing a deep contempt for the 
flippancies and immoralities of modern Paris society. The 
Revolution of 1848 found the Comte de Chambord at Ven- 
ice with his mother, who was by no means weary of con- 
spiracy. For a time it seemed as if a vigorous attempt to 
secure the throne were to be made ; but it was found to 
be discouraging work, and the Royalist supporters dropped 
away one by one. The duchess had, some years pre- 
viously, on the occasion of her departure IVom the Fortress 
of Blaye, and the discovery that she had married secretly 
a second' time in Italy, been deprived of the privilege of 



246 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

directing her son's education ; but he remained deeply 
attached to her. The Comte de Chambord showed him- 
self near the French frontier repeatedly during the Revolu- 
tion — -now at Cologne, now at Wiesbaden, now at Ems ; 
and in the latter city the first attempt at fusion of the two 
branches of the Royal family was made. 

The manifestoes which came from Frohsdorff from time 
to time after the advent of the Empire had rendered futile 
any farther attempts at a Legitimist restoration, and were 
always read with interest by Frenchmen, but excited little 
or no enthusiasm. The count passed his life in meditation, 
devotion, social duties, the cultivation of lively literary 
tastes, and a keen review of the progress of events. He 
sent words of encouragement, counsel, and true French 
spirit to his suffering countrymen during the war of 1870, 
and at that period carefully refrained from urging his per- 
sonal claims ; and he told the nation some refreshing, 
although disagreeable truths, in the long proclamation 
which he issued during the Commune's reign. But peo- 
ple at that moment listened with extreme impatience. 
They did not like to hear him stoutly insisting on the 
omnipotence of the Church, and asserting his royalty, 
while they were struggling in the toils. 

The proclamation which he issued in July of 1871 has 
sometimes been sneeringly called his suicide. In it he 
renounced the title of Chambord, although he had, as he 
says, been proud of it for forty years ; and he added : 
"I can neither forget that the monarchical right is the 
patrimony of the nation, nor decline the duties which it 
imposes upon me. I will fulfil these duties, believe me, 
on my word as honest man and as King." He promised 



THE COMTE DE CHAMBORD. 247 

administrative decentralization and local franchises, and 
signed himself "Henri," perhaps this time even with a 
confident flourish. But the French shrugged their shoul- 
ders, and said that they wanted no king. 

For a moment, in 1873, it seemed as if there might be 
hopes of a restoration. There were decided efforts at con- 
ciliation between the two branches of the Bourbon house. 
But, at the last minute, just as the ladies were ordering 
their court robes, and the gentlemen devoted to royalty 
were beginning to take courage, the Comte de Chambord 
dispersed to the winds all their castles in Spain by formally 
announcing to Monseigneur Dupanloup that he had 
neither sacrifices to make nor conditions to receive. And 
he added : "I expect little from the wisdom of men and 
much from the justice of God." 

The Comte de Chambord is rapidly nearing three- 
score ; he has no children ; he stands haughtily aloof 
from the press of politicians at Versailles and in the par- 
lors of Paris ; and one may almost fancy him continually 
repeating the sentence with which his manifesto of July, 
1871, closes : 

" Henry the Fifth cannot abandon the white flag of 
Henry the Fourth." 



The Due d'Aumale. 



lEFORE the National Assembly had passed the 
1K3 KOJ! ^'^^^'^ which permitted the return of the Orleans 
llEs^^^l Princes to the country from which they had been 
exiled so long, the Due d'Aumale announced himself as a 
candidate in the department of the Oise. His letter, writ- 
ten in London, and addressed to the voters in the depart- 
ment, was received with peculiar favor ; the adherents of 
constitutional monarchy were not displeased at the pros- 
pect of being represented by a prince who possessed superb 
estates in the Oise ; estates, too which had come down to 
him from the heritage of the last of the Condes. The Re- 
publicans were pleased, because, in the electoral letter, or 
profession of faith, the duke made use of the following 
terms, after frankly expressing his preference for monarchy 
as the future form of government for France : 

"In my sentiments, in my past, in the traditions of my 
family, I find nothing which separates me from the Re- 
public. If it is under that form of government that France 
wishes to live and definitelv to constitute her future con- 



THE DUG D AUMALE. 249 

dition, I am ready to bow before her sovereignty, and I 
shall remain her devoted servitor. Constitutional mon- 
archy or liberal republic prevailing, it is only by political 
probity, by the spirit of concord and abnegation, that 
France can be saved and regenerated. Those are the sen- 
timents which inspire me." 

Truly, these were noble and courageous words, full of 
dignity and of the worthy spirit of self-sacrifice, which the 
duke advocated in his letter, they serve as an admirable 
exponent cf the frankness, earnestness, and nobility of one 
of the first gentlemen of his time. 

The Due d'Aumale has long been a familiar figure in 
England, but the present generation of Frenchmen really 
knew little of his worth, until he returned from exile, The 
Imperial ring was wont to scatter aspersions concerning 
the Orleans family ; and, because the personal record of 
the gentlemen and ladies composing the family was stain- 
less, the ring liked to dwell vaguely on political intrigues, 
which had no existence save in the brains of the inventors. 
When the duke came among his countrymen after long 
absence, he found that they awoke speedily from their in- 
difference, and welcomed him with the deference and 
homage which his talents and good qualities, rather than 
his once exalted position commanded. 

The duke is now in his fifty-third year ; but he is as 
vigorous and youthful in appearance as many a man of 
thirty. He is essentially a soldier in his bearing ; were he 
to be dressed in an Oriental robe ajid set in an easy chair, 
it would be difficult for him to conceal the attitudes, the 
movements which inevitably betray the better type of 
French officer. He is in every sense a Gaul ; his features, 
II* 9 



250 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

clearly cut and stamped with a certain nobleness of aspect, 
are decidedly Gallic ; a long residence in England has not 
given him a single trait of Anglo-Saxon manner or method, 
Henri Eugene Philippe Louis d'Orleans, Due d'Aumale, 
shows exactly who and what he is, and might be picked 
out of a crowd for a representative of the family, by any 
one who had ever once seen an Orleans. 

He was born in Paris, on the i6th of January, 1822, and 
was the fourth son of King Louis Philippe, and of Queen 
Marie Amelia. Like his brothers, he received a public 
education at the college of Henri Quatre, and distin- 
guished himself by his University successes, carrying off 
two prizes in rhetoric. In his early years, the brilliant and 
distinguished M. Cuvilier Fleury was his preceptor. The 
immense fortune which he had inherited did not hinder 
him from entering the ranks' of the army at seventeen, 
from making his debut as officer at the camp of Fontaine- 
bleau, and soon afterwards directing the school for military 
instruction at Vincennes. In 1839, he was promoted to 
the grade of captain of the Fourth Regiment of the line, and 
in 1840, he accompanied to Algeria his brother, who had 
already made for himself a fine place in the army then 
campaigning the?-e. He went out as a staff-officer, was 
under fire for the first time at Afroun, took part in the 
combats on the ridge of the Mouzaia, and elsewhere, 
and meantime gained rapidly in promotion. In July 
of 1 84 1, he was stricken down by fever, and returned 
to France, where he was ever}'whcre received with the 
greatest demonstrations of enthusiasm. The return to 
Paris of the Seventeenth Light Infantry was one of the 
greatest popular ovations ever seen in France ; the popu- 



THE DUG D AUMvVLE. 25 I 

lation gave a glorious welcome to the bands of sunburned 
and ragged soldiers, conducted by the gallant prince ; and 
could not contain their indignation when Quenisset, a 
discontented soldier, attempted to assassinate D'Aumale 
by firing a pistol at him as he marched by at the head of his 
column. Fortunately, the assassin's hand trembled, and 
the prince escaped. 

The duke spent the period of 1841-42 in hard military 
study, and then, having been made a marshal of the camp, 
he returned to Algeria, where, until 1843, ^^ commanded 
the subdivision of Medeah. It was not long before he 
distinguished himself, and obtained the grade of lieuten- 
ant-general, by a brilliant feat of arms. In command of 
a small and compact force, he attacked the encampment 
of Abd-el-Kader at Goudgilab, and captured it with much 
treasure, and all the correspondence, standards, and flocks 
of the emir, together with thirty-six hundred prisoners. 
Not content with promoting the young prince, the author- 
ities made him chief commander of the province of Con- 
stantine. In 1844 he undertook another expedition, suc- 
cessful in all particulars ; and toward the end of the same 
year he married the daughter of Prince Leopold of Sal- 
erna — Marie Caroline Auguste de Bourbon. Two suc- 
ceeding years were passed in incessant labor, at the camp 
of the Gironde, in 1845, ^^'^ ^^ pacifying the Kabyles in 
1846, after which the prince went to Madrid for a little re- 
pose, and to be present at the marriage of his brother, 
Montpensier. In September of 1847, the king, having 
had some differences with Marshal Bugeaud on the sub- 
ject of the camps in the colonies, removed him and placed 
in his stead the Due d'Aumale as Governor-General of the 



252 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

French possessions in Africa. The duke thus became a 
kind of viceroy in Algeria, with his residence in Algiers. 
The army was devoted to him, but the viceroyalty was 
the object of lively attacks from the Opposition at home. 
Guizot defended it in a speech, made in January 1848. 
D'Aumale was viceroy only six months, for the Revolution 
came to relieve him of his functions. As soon as he heard 
of the abdication of Louis Philippe, he resigned, gave his 
duties into the hands of General Cavaignac, and, counsel- 
ing the army to await orders from Paris, he left Algeria 
on the ship "Solon, "in company with the Prince and 
Princess of Joinville. The "Solon" went to Gibraltar, 
thence to England and the duke was in exile. 

D'Aumale has frequently been bitterly abused for what 
his enemies call his "lack of firmness" at that critical 
moment. They say that he should have marched upon 
Paris at the head of the army which idolized him, and 
should have endeavored to protect the throne from which 
his father had been compelled to retire. But he, doubt- 
less, remembered that during the Revolution great num- 
bers of the soldiers of the line had gone over to the pop- 
ulace, and, consequently, reflected that in the army of 
eighty thousand men under his orders there might be not 
a few who would do the same thing. As soon as Louis 
Philippe heard of his son's conduct, and read the letter of 
farewell which the young duke had addressed to t*he army, 
he gave these measures his cordial approval in the pres- 
ence of numerous eye-witnesses, and, referring to the let- 
ter, said : 

" That is the only thing which D'Aumale could have 
worthily said." 



THE DUG D AUMALE. 253 

The duke, on his arrival in England, went first to Clare- 
mont, to comfort the king and queen in exile. In suc- 
ceeding years he made numerous journeys to Italy, and 
finally settled upon the choice of a residence in England, 
at Twickenham. He purchased Orleans House, the 
property of Lord Kilmorey, a simple mansion in a peace- 
ful neighborhood, and rendered attractive to its new pos- 
sessor by the fact that Louis Philippe and Marie Amelia 
had passed two years there, from 18 13 to 181 5, when they 
were proscribed in France. It was at Orleans House that 
the parents of the Due d'Aumale had heard the first news 
of the battle of Waterloo ; there that the king's hands had 
planted many shrubs, which are to-day majestic trees. The 
duke was enchanted with his new property ; he settled 
down to its enjoyment with a rare zest ; spent his morn- 
ings in his library, or among his superb collections of 
pictures ; astonished the English in the neighborhood by 
his soldier-like manner of dashing about the country on 
horseback, with no visible object, not even the grave one 
of following the hounds; and entertained company in ihe 
most modest and delightful manner, Twickenham and 
Orleans House were mentioned often exiough in the Eng- 
lish papers, but the French press did not contain many 
items concerning Louis Philippe's daring and accom- 
plished soldier-son. It made the Imperialists uncomfort- 
able to see his name paraded, and they never allowed the 
newspapers to annoy them. 

The wandering Frenchman, with a kindly remembrance 
of the Orleans rule in France, rarely went to England 
without making an excursion to Twickenham to pay his 
respects, and write down his name or leave his card at the 



254 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

porter's lodge as a token of respect. The fortunate ones 
who penetrated the mansion, which the duke gradually en- 
larged until he had given it the proportions of a small pal- 
ace, found that he had inscribed upon the walls and on the 
shelves of his library the most gratifying evidences of perfect 
taste. ' ' At the first visit, " says M. Yriarte in a description of 
Orleans House, " one sees that the master of the residence 
is an eclectic in art and in literature ; there are pictures of 
the Italian, Spanish, Flemish, and French schools, and a 
considerable number of historical miniatures. Fragonard 
is represented there by a very curious collection of forty- 
two portraits of the princes and princesses of the royal 
branch of Bourbon and the family of Conde. This comes 
from the Chateau of Chantilly. Another interesting col- 
lection, from an historical point of view, is that relating 
specially to the conqueror of Rocroy. It is a passage in 
the histor}^ of France spread out before the eyes. In the 
midst of the numerous portraits of Conde, and of the 
paintings of the combats in which he was engaged, the vis- 
itor may lay his hand upon the flag of the Royal Liegeois 
Regiment, taken at the Battle of Rocroy, and upon the 
guidons of the army of the prince. 

"The designs by masters are very numerous, and, of all 
the schools ; engravings occupy a very large portion of 
the space ; and one may say that in the galleries there is 
to be found a sample of every form which art can take on 
to please the eye, elevate the soul, and touch the heart. 
Enamels from Petittot and Limousin, exquisite miniatures, 
precious manuscripts, autographs of Francis I., of Rabelais, 
of Montaigne, Brantome, Conde, Corneille, Racine, fig- 
ure in this collection, in which one also sees the autograph 



THE DUC D AUMALE. 255 

corrections of Bossuet on the manuscript copy of the 
Defense of the ' Declaration of the Clergy of France.' 
The whole is a spectacle which delights and tempts the 
amateur. 

"The romantic period of 1830, that admirable efflores- 
cence at which the princes assisted, . and for which they 
have such a love, is specially represented at Orleans House. 
The history of art in our time would not be complete if 
the historian did not visit this dwelling. The Maison Gal- 
lery went in there, purchased all at once ; and, during 
twenty years of exile, the prince has every year, at the auc- 
tions, disputed the finest pictures with other amateurs. 

" Near the library, to which one is conducted by a gal- 
lery ornamented with Ecouen windows, attributed to 
Bernard de Palissy, is the Prince's private cabinet. It is in 
France, because everything in it speaks of that country. 
There the African weapons, and the cap and the epaulettes 
of the lieutenant-general are preserved as precious sou- 
venirs ; family relics cover the walls. 

" The library is famous ; the Cigogne Collection was the 
nucleus. Every day since that time, some rare copy, an 
Aldus or an Elzevir, fought for at sales, has come to take its 
place upon the shelves. The prince himself carefully 
superintends his catalogue, which will be an important 
work." 

In 1863, when the Fine Arts Club visited Twickenham, 
the members were shown a special exhibition, comprising 
seven hundred and thirty different pictures, tapestries, 
gems, historical weapons, and precious bindings. There 
is probably not another private collection in Europe which 
is at once so rich and so varied. In addition to the labor 



256 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

of making and superintending this veritable museum which 
he had created in his own house, the duke moved much, 
and with evident pleasure, in English society ; he was well 
known, and received with flattering attentions everywhere 
in the three kingdoms ; he had a shooting-box in Worces- 
tershire, and went there now and then to find relaxation from 
books, pictures, and parlors. Like the Comte de Paris, 
he gave careful attention to the study of English institu- 
tions and people, and drew from them much serious 
inspiration. At Brussels, at Baden, and in- Switzerland, in 
summer he was often to be found ; and many political 
adversaries, falling into conversation with him in the 
unceremonious fashion prevalent at watering-places, with- 
out an introduction, were charmed with his brilliant con- 
versation and his store of knowledge. He has always 
had a particular liking for Switzerland, and sent his son, 
the Prince de Conde, to Lausanne to finish his studies 
and to enter the Swiss army. 

The years of exile passed rapidly, and far from unhap- 
pily for this duke. In 1855, he published, in the J^evue 
des Deux Monies, over the signature of De Mars, two ex- 
cellent essays, one concerning the Zouaves, and the other 
on the Chasseurs a Pied in the French army. He had pre- 
viously written papers on the ' ' Captivity of King John " and 
the " Siege of Alesia, " and in 1861, having read a speech 
made in Paris by the Prince Napoleon, he wrote a pamphlet 
called a "Letter on the History of France," which made a 
great sensation in Paris, and led the gossips to predict that 
Prince Plon Plon and the duke would have to meet on the 
turf in deadly encounter. The publisher and the printer 
of the pamphlet were both condemned to pass a year in 



THE DUG D AUMALE. 257 

prison, and to pay five thousand francs fine. When, some 
time later, the duke's " History of the Princes of the House 
of Conde " was published in France by Michel Levy, the 
government interdicted the first edition, and it was not 
until four years later that it was allowed to appear. The 
duke, who has since attained the great honor of a seat in 
the French Academy, having been elected on the 30th of 
December, 1871, to the place left vacant by M. de Mon- 
talembert, has lived to see the same persecutors tasting the 
bitter bread of exile. The official admission of the duke 
to the Academy, by the way, was marked by the fact that, 
contrary to the immemorial custom, he addressed in his 
speech, as a new-comer, no especial thanks to the worthy 
company. He was, for that matter, as a clever French 
writer has said, "quite at home in the Academy, seated 
beside his preceptor, and surrounded by ministers and 
friends who had served his family, much as if he had been 
in M. Guizot's parlor." 

The duke entered France almost immediately after the 
September revolution in 1870, and begged to be allowed 
a share in the national defense. His offer was refused, 
and he went back to exile, this time in Brussels, with a * 
heavy heart. A few days after the meeting of the Assem- 
bly at Bordeaux, early in 1871, the duke and his brother, 
the Prince de Joinville, came to Bordeaux to demand the 
seats to which they had been elected. The dnke slept 
one night under the same roof, that of the Hotel de France, 
with Thiers, the newly-constituted chief of executive 
power. But the government "invited" both princes to 
leave the country, and to remain absent until the laws of 
exile were abrogated. They went to England, and waited 



258 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

impatiently. In June, 1871, two propositions for abro- 
gation were presented to tlie Assembly, one tending to the 
abolition of all proscriptive laws, and the other demanding 
simply the repeal of the laws forbidding the Bourbon 
princes to enter France. In obedience to the detnand of 
M. Thiers," who declared that the abrogation could be ac- 
corded only in exchange for certain guarantees, the friends 
of the princes announced that the latter had pledged 
themselves neither to take their seats nor to present 
themselves at any election during the existence of the As- 
sembly. Thiers offered no obstacles to the repeal of the 
exile laws, after this promise was made public ; and the 
elections of the duke and his brother, which the As- 
sembly had up to that time refused to confirm, were ren- 
dered valid. 

In December, 1871, the Due d'Aumale, wearied of 
occupying the abnormal and humiliating position of a 
deputy whose election was not contested, yet who could 
not take his seat, published in the Journal des Dcba/s, a 
letter in which he declared that the promise which he had 
made in the interests of public peace, and under very ex- 
ceptional circumstances, should not be considered as irrevo- 
cable. He brought the matter anew to the attention of the 
Assembly, whose members were already half inclined to 
let in the princes who had been so long kept "out in the 
cold." On the very day of the publication of the duke's 
letter, M. Brunet inquired of the government "why 
deputies elected ten months since, and whose elections had 
been confirmed for more than six months, were not present 
in the Assembly." A debate ensued. The deputies, when 
the matter was brouglit to a vote anew, shrugged their 



. THE DUG D AUMALE. 259 

shoulders and decided that they would adopt an order of 
the day announcing that they would take no responsibility 
and give no advice in the affair. They left it to the con- 
sciences of the princes ; and the duke and his brother 
went the next day to the Assembly and took their seats. 
But, although the duke had appeared exceedingly desirous 
to get into the Chamber, he assumed an attitude of pru- 
dent reserve as soon as he arrived there. He abstained 
from voting on difficult and delicate questions, and only 
spoke on rare occasions. 

When the trial of Marshal Bazaine was prepared at Ver- 
sailles, the Due d'Aumale, who had, naturally enough, 
been re-established by M. Thiers in his grade of division- 
general, found himself called by seniority to become a 
member of the court-martial, to whom the fate of the be- 
trayer of Metz was committed. It is, perhaps, doubtful 
if the duke desired to sit on the court-martial, for one of 
his friends offered an amendment in the Assembly a short 
time before the trial, to the effect that deputies could not 
become members of the court. This amendment was re- 
jected, and the duke declared that he would fulfill his duty 
as a soldier, however painful and cruel it might be. In 
October of 1873, he was chosen president of the court- 
martial, and has been warmly praised for the tact and 
courtesy with which he fulfilled his difficult duty. 

With the return of honors came the wealth which had 
been wrested from the duke and his family by the Im- 
perial laws of 1852. The National Assembly voted, on the 
2 1st of December, 1872, to restore to the Orleans princes 
property worth forty millions of francs. The duke pur- 
chased the Hotel Fould in the Faubourg Saint Honore, 



26o BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

and there threw open his hospitable parlors to the hosts oi 
celebrities who gathered about him. He was able to in- 
vite his friends to Chantilly, whence. he had been so long 
banished, and to enjoy most of the privileges which had 
been taken from him in 1848. He was greatly shocked 
and saddened by the death of his wife, which occurred 
while he was still- in exile ; and he has never recovered from 
the sorrow. The amiable and accomplished duchess was 
a real helpmate for him ; she was his secretary in all his 
literary labors, and was interested in his collections. Many 
children were born to the duke during his exile, but two, 
at the time of the outbreak of the late war, were living — • 
the Prince de Conde and the Due de Guise. The former 
died in Sidney, Australia, from fever, during a journey 
which he was making round the world. 

The failure of the attempted restoration of royalty can 
hardly have surprised the Due d'Aumale. Since that time 
his adhesion to existing institutions has been firm, and 
recently published letters in the avowed organ of the Or- 
leanist family, \hQ Journal de Paris, makes their support 
of the Republic seem almost like a renunciation of any 
future pretensions to a resumption of their reign. 

As the duke is a division-general in actual service, he 
is taking an active part in the re-modeling and consolida- 
tion of the French forces, and to this work he gives his 
whole heart and soul. 



k 



The Comte de Paris. 




HEN the Comte de Paris was a child ten years 
old, he was greatly surprised, one day, to learn 
Ij that the teachers, who usually kept him busy with 
lessons, could not come to him. His first impression was 
that a new holiday had been created, and he was eagerly 
looking forward to a festival, when he remarked that his 
mother and all the persons about her were unusually sad. 
The great palace of the Tuileries, where he was wont to 
see everything and everybody in gala attire, was somber 
as a funeral vault ; mysterious-looking people came and 
went from the royal cabinet, and the count and his bro- 
thers were carefully secluded from view of the, streets. 

This was on the 23d of February, 1848. On the morn- 
ing of the 24th, when the young count went, as usual, 
to kiss his mother, she told him that a great misfortune 
had befallen France ; that he could not understand it, but 
that he must pray and await events. His preceptor came 
at the usual hour and lessons were heard in an apartment 
of the palace opening upon the Rue de Rivoli. Suddenly 



262 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

an order came to remove to rooms overlooking the garden ; 
and the count then learned that a combat in the streets 
was imminent. The child, after his lessons, began to play 
in the room to which he had been removed, when the 
door was hastily thrown open, and his mother entered, 
saying to the teacher : 

" It is not a riot ; it is a revolution." 

The young count understood full well the meaning of 
the last word which fell from his mother's lips. He fol- 
lowed her, with questioning eyes, into a small bedroom, 
which separated Louis Philippe's pi'ivate cabinet from that 
of the queen. Then the preceptor, now thoroughly al- 
armed, attempted to conceal his agitation as he superintend- 
ed the translation of an episode in an epitome of sacred 
history. The count was ferreting out the narrative of the 
young heroes, who, according to the book of Maccabees, 
perished in cauldrons of boiling oil, when a great tumult 
arose on the Place du Carrousel. The troops, drawn up in 
line, demanded to see the king. Louis Philippe went 
out to pass the review, and the young count gazed at the 
brilliant spectacle from a window of the palace. 

A short time after Louis Philippe had returned from the 
Place du Carrousel, he came out of his cabinet with a de- 
termined air, and, standing erect before the door, said, in 
a grave and firm voice :* 

" I abdicate." 

The young count ran to his teacher, saying, "No; it's 
impossible." He was not too young to understand that 
if his grandfather should abdicate, he might be called upon 

* " Les Princes d'Orleans." Par Charles Yriarte. Paris. 1872. 



THE COMTE DE PARIS. 265 

to take his place, and visions of a gilded throne and of 
every one looking at him, floated through his youthful 
brain. Outside, he heard from time to time the noise of 
musketry, but he was not allowed to look out of any 
window. His mother at last came to tell him that he 
must accompany her to the Chamber of Deputies, and 
thither the frightened lady, with her two sons, and sur- 
rounded by a host of devoted friends, took her way. They 
passed out under the clock tower of the palace. The 
count did not approach that tower again until twenty- 
four years later, when he found it a heap of smouldering 
ruins. 

After many adventures, they arrived at the Chamber of 
Deputies. There the count was seated beside his mother, 
and was enjoined to be silent while the speeches were 
made. He saw that his mother was surrounded by coun- 
selors, who advised her what to say to the Chamber ; 
then came violent knocking at the door ; the crowd rushed 
in, and muskets were aimed at the Duchess and her chil- 
dren. The good M. de Remusat covered the young 
count with his body. No guns were fired, but the 
child, with his mother and brother, fled from the hall, 
and after a weary and dangerous season of wandering, in 
which they were protected by the kindly offices of rela- 
tives and friends, they gained the open country, left the 
revolution behind them, and found themselves practi- 
cally in exile. There were days of journeying, which were 
terribly fatiguing to the child. When at last they came 
to the frontier, and discussed the question of crossing it, 
he cried : 

' ' Leave France 1 No, never ! " . 



264 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

But the carriage went on, and the family did not find 
repose until it had crossed the Rhine, and the mother, 
pressing her children to her breast, said : 

"Now I feel that I am, indeed, exiled." 

The duchess established herself at Eisenach, in a cha- 
teau which was the property of her uncle, the Grand Duke 
of Saxe-Weimar. There the count and his brother tran- 
quilly pursued their studies until the summer of 1849, 
when the duchess decided to reside in England. The 
little family embarked at Rotterdam, and, after a rude voy- 
age, arrived in the hospitable island destined so long to 
be their home. 

The period from early youth to manhood was passed by 
the count in long journeys in Germany, alternated with 
serious study and periods of residence in England. When 
he was twenty, his mother wrote of him: "It is no 
longer I who protect him ; I feel that he protects me." 
The Due de Nemours was for a time his mentor, and has 
borne witness to the early gravity, serenity, and sweetness 
of the count's character. Just before the youth attained 
his majority, he became enamored of the study of chem- 
istry ; and, after a few months of application, he was con- 
sidered by Professor Hoffman, of the London School of 
Mines, as one of his most remarkable pupils. He has 
never relinquished his study of the science. After the 
death of his mother, which occurred in May, 1858, he 
traveled extensively in Spain, came back to England, there 
to await the end and the results of the war in Italy, and in 
the following year, in company with his brother, visited 
the East. His correspondence of that period is filled 
with the most charming souvenirs of his excursions in 



THE COMTE DE PARIS. 265 

Egypt, the Holy Land, and Greece ; even then he wrote 
well, and deserved the literary reputation which he has 
gained since that time. He was in Syria at the time of the 
Lebanon massacres, and the impressions of his journey 
there are recorded in a volume entitled "Damascus and 
Lebanon/' which he published in London in 1865. 

The Comte de Paris and his brother were anxious to 
study the political and social system of the United States, 
and on the 30th August, 1861, but a short time after 
their return from the East, they sailed for New York. 
They found the country in the anguish of civil war, and 
their sympathies, as well as their curiosity, were at once 
aroused. The count had not been able to serve in the 
Italian campaign, as his younger brother had done, for 
fear of complicating the relations of Victor Emanuel with 
the Emperor of the French, But he longed to take part 
in the struggle for liberty in America ; there appeared no 
obstacle to his participation, and both he and his brother 
at once demanded permission to serve in the Federal army. 
They were gladly received, and, in the letter which Mr. 
Seward wrote them to announce that they had been at 
tached to General McClellan's staff, he affirmed that the 
princes served without pay, that they had been asked to take 
no oath of allegiance, and that they were free to return to 
Europe whenever they should choose. As this left them 
ample room for honorable retirement in case the United 
States should find its interests opposed to those of France, 
the princes entered the service. 

The Comte de Paris has often declared that the hap- 
piest days of his exile were passed as a staff officer in 
McClellan's army. During the ten months that he was 



266 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

with the Army of the Potomac he was active in service. 
His duty was to obtain information as to the enemy's 
plans, forces, and positions ; and he was frequently com- 
mended for his industry and zeal. Both he and his 
brother risked their lives in numerous' battles, notably at 
the fight of Gaines's Hill. The count assisted at the 
taking of Yorktown and the siege of Richmond ; and 
would doubtless have served throughout the campaigns 
whose historian he was destined to be, had not the unfor- 
tunate attitude of the Imperial Government with regard to 
Mexico rendered a collision between France and the 
United States among the probabilities, and made it wise 
for the princes to leave the Federal service, that hostile 
criticism might be avoided. They took leave of General 
McClellan on a gunboat on the James River, and shortly 
afterwards departed for Europe, having served from the 
28th of September, 1861, to the 2d of July, 1862. It is 
gratifying to note that, according to the testimony of all 
his personal friends, the Comte de Paris never for a mo- 
ment, even in the darkest hours of our national trial, 
doubted the final triumph of the Union. The precocious 
maturity which his fond mother perceived and noted, many 
years before her death, in her letters to her friends in 
France, had become so marked in 1862, that many of the 
letters written from America by the young prince, twenty^ 
four years of age, seem like the sentiments of a man of 
forty. 

Soon after his return from America to England, the 
Comte de Paris became much interested in social science, 
and zealously studied everything concerning the workmen's 
condition. At the time of the great cotton famine, he 



THE COMTE DE PARIS. 26/ 

visited Manchester, and was in active relations with those 
people interested in aiding the starving- poor of Lanca- 
shire. The spies of the emperor soon found out the new 
turn which the count's studies had taken, and watched the 
mails carefully to see that nothing subversive, from his pen, 
crept into France. When the prince decided to embody 
the result of his observations in an article contributed to 
the Revue des Deux Mondes, in February of 1863, under the 
title of "Christmas Week in Lancashire," he was compelled 
to publish it over the name of another contributor. To have 
given to so noted a publication an essay filled with argu- 
ments in favor of combinations among working-men, over 
the signature of the Comte de Paris, would have been an 
unpardonable offense in the eyes of the Emperor Napo- 
leon. The article was signed by Eugene Forbade, but all 
the friends of the Comte de Paris knew that he was the 
author. It attracted great attention both in England and 
France, and encouraged the prince to other studies. In 
company with Jules Simon, he again visited Manchester ; 
carefully investigated the origin and purposes of the famous 
society of the ' ' Equitable Pioneers of Rochdale, " and made 
the acquaintance of many of its founders. For several 
years he devoted a great portion of his leisure to excur- 
sions among the working people of England, and kept up 
an extensive private correspondence on the subject of 
workmen's unions, and their benefits, with the people in- 
terested in the same matter in America, England, and on 
the Continent. 

In 1868 his attention was drawn to the voluminous re- 
ports published by the English Parliament under the name 
of "Blue Books," which contain such treasures of in- 



268 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

formation on the special matters of which they treat. His 
bookseller had sent him one of these " Blue Books" con- 
taining a portion of the report of the sessions of the royal 
commission established to inquire into the condition and 
working- of the trades' unions. He read this eagerly, and 
awaited the others impatiently. When they came, and he 
had devoured their contents, he found himself possessed of 
a lively desire to know some of the persons who had played 
the most important rdles in the commission. He met 
and had many interviews with Thomas Hughes, who was 
a member of the minority favorable to the continued ex- 
istence of the unions. In the course of a third visit to 
Manchester, he encountered Maudley, an old workman, 
who lived in an obscure cottage in one of the dreariest 
suburbs of Manchester, but who had great influence over 
the trades' unions in Lancashire. Maudley was a logical, 
honest, straightforward representative of the better type 
of his class, by no means embittered against society, 
which he desired to aid in reforming rather than in de- 
stroying ; and the heir to the French throne and the 
humble workmen spent many afternoons together, com- 
paring theories and discussing plans for the amelioration of 
the lower classes. 

The result of all this study — this close attention to the 
subject for nearly six years — was the publication, early in 
1869, by the Comte de Paris, of a compactly written and 
intensely interesting little volume, entitled " Workingmen's 
Associations in England." The book was at first pub- 
lished anonymously, and obtained a gratifying success. 
The Imperial censors of course found out with no loss of 
time who the author was. After peering into the pages 



THE COMTE DE PARIS. 269 

to discover any infernal machine which might he hidden 
there, and finding none, they opposed no hindrance to its 
sale, and it ran througli numerous editions. It is filled 
with information calculated to be serviceable to the French 
working classes ; and a spirit of liberality and even en- 
lightened republicanism is breathed throughout the work. 
The count was reproached because he did not draw any 
definite conclusions, but he showed by powerful reasoning 
that the working classes cannot expect to be happy in a 
country where the liberty of the press, of public assembly, 
and of association is denied them. He hinted that a system 
of industrial partnerships might aid in solving the grievous 
problem, whose solution has always been- so far beyond 
the French mental grasp, and he was of course attacked by 
hostile critics who were perhaps paid to cry down any 
work which came from the pen of an Orleans, 
' The count is a good pamphleteer, and his essays on 
"The New Germany in 1867," and "The Spirit of Con- 
quest in 1871," attracted much attention in France. The 
latter was published shortly before the distinguished author 
was recalled from exile. He also published in 1868 a no- 
ticeable article on "State Church and Free Church in 
Ireland." In his writings on Germany, he gave to his 
countrymen a clear and admirable view of the progress of 
centralization in that country. He was admirably qualified 
for this work by the numerous sojourns and journeys which 
he had made in the German States when young. 

His private life, after his return from America, was sin- 
gularly happy. In 1862, during the Universal Exhibition 
at London, he and the other members of the family wera 
constantly feted and acclaimed by pilgrims from France, 



2/0 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

who did not hesitate to tell them that they looked forward 
with impatience to the time when the Comte de Paris should 
grace the throne from which Louis Philippe had stepped 
down. In 1863 the count went to Spain, where, in 
1859, ^^ the occasion of a brief visit, he had seen and 
admired his cousin-german, the Princess Isabelle, daugh- 
ter of the Due de Montpensier. He found her, on his 
second visit, an accomplished and elegant lady, and a fam- 
ily council demanded her hand for him. The count took 
his charming cousin to England, where they were married, 
in the Catholic chapel of Kingston, in 1864. 

The years from 1864 to 1870 were comparatively une- 
ventful for the Comte de Paris. The death of his devoted 
mother, in 1866, was a sad blow to him ; their association 
had always been tender and intimate ; and the vicissitudes 
through which she had been compelled to pass when he 
was young had intensified his affection for her. In 1867 
he returned to Spain for a short time, after which he 
established himself near Twickenham, at York House, in 
England. His home was very modest compared with the 
superb residence of the Due d'Aumale at Twickenham, but 
it was charmingly situated in one of the most delightful 
suburbs of London, and there tire count devoted himself 
to study and to the education of his children, until the 
downfall of the Empire made a way for his return to 
France. 

A demand for the abrogation of the laws of exile, which 
hung over the heads of the Orleans family, was repulsed by 
the Corps Legislatif in June of 1870. Three months later 
the Empire no longer existed. The Due d'Aumale and 
the Prince de Joinville were in Brussels, as near the theater 



THE COMTE DE PARIS. 27I 

of the war as they could safely get, but the Comte de Paris 
was condemned to remain in England, lest his journeys 
at such a time might be attributed to a policy of action. 
He sent from York House a demand to the French 
Government to be allowed to take up arms in defense of 
his country ; but his efforts were vain. At last came the 
law abrogating the laws of exile — voted by the National 
Assembly — and the count returned to France to find it as 
when he left it, in disorder and revolution. He made 
a pilgrimage to Dreux, to the tombs of his ancestors, 
then went to Paris, and walked among the smoking 
ruins of the palace which he had once, a royal infant, in- 
habited. 

The Comte de Paris is to-day installed with the Due 
d'Aumale, his uncle, in a superb mansion in the Faubourg 
Saint-Honore. He keeps a keen eye on the political sit- 
uation ; is by no means entirely hostile to the Republic, 
and it was even rumored in the early autumn of 1875 that 
he and the other members Of the family were inclined to 
rally to the support of the new government. He devotes 
himself with the same assiduity which characterized him 
in Germany, in England, and in the United States, to the 
study of social and economical questions. He is now 
thirty-seven years of age ; a tall, robust, and gracious per- 
sonage, noble in aspect, and the observed of all observers, 
even when surrounded by celebrities. He wanders about 
the industrial quarters of Paris, and enters into conver- 
sation with the workmen ; passes his mornings in his li- 
brary, and his evenings with his children or in society, 
and travels enough every year to keep his cosmopolitan 
spirit out of the Paris ruts. He has three children, one 



2/2 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

of whom, the Due d'Orleans, gives promise of decided 
genius. 

The latest work from the pen of the count, the " His- 
tory of the Civil War in America," has hardly yet been 
published long enough to have received a final verdict. It 
has evidently been a labor of love, and is written in a 
sympathetic spirit. In this work the author has rather 
boldly declared principles which can be called by no other 
name than republican, and which reflect the highest honor 
upon his head and heart. 




Ernest Picard. 




|HE deputies in the National Assembly never shuf- 
fled their feet when M. Picard was in the tribune. 
They were always compelled, by the magic of his 
voice, to listen and to be silent. However much they 
might disagree with what he had to say, they were careful, 
as a rule, not to cry out against him ; and had he been 
offended at anything like a lack of attention, and taken 
them to task, they would have been terrified. 

M. Picard, who began his political career in the early 
days of the Second Empire, and who has combated the 
principles of that government from first to last, is to-day 
a lively, rotund, humorous, polished, accomplished poli- 
-tician, of democratic manners and matchless address. He 
Avas born in Paris in December of 182 1 ; studied law, and 
entered the bar with great promise. . He became the sec- 
retary of the brilliant and celebrated M. Lionville, and 
finally married the daughter of that distinguished person- 
age. In 1 85 1 he was accumulating a fine practice, and 
was already among the legal celebrities of the city. Re- 
12* 



274 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

gardless of consequences, he protested loudly against the 
infamy of the coup d'etat, and then opposed the Impe- 
rial intrigues by every means in his power. He became a 
member of the Administrative Council of the Siecle news- 
paper, and in this position was able to administer some 
hard knocks to his adversary. His voice was heard in all 
the political meetings decrying the policy of abstention, 
with which so many of the Republican leaders endeavored 
to content themselves in those days. In 1858 he was 
elected to the Corps I^egislatif as the candidate of the Dem- 
ocratic opposition. He rushed into the political arena 
with frantic force, which, as he became more accustomed 
to the kind of warfare required, setded into calm and 
continuous eifort. He was one of the most useful of the 
famous group of " the Five " who dared to stand up in the 
legislative hall, and to say to all the world that the gov- 
ernment of Napoleon III. was a tyranny founded on fraud 
and violence, and that it was the duty of the French peo- 
ple to overturn it. In questions of finance, of internal 
policy, and of exterior relations, he was an acknowledged 
leader in the Republican ranks, and he never hesitated to 
say exactly what he thought, no matter into how great 
rage it might throw the Imperial party. He was the 
sworn enemy of Haussmann and his administration of the 
Department of the Seine, from the very moment of the ap- 
pointment of that functionary. He made the prefect un- 
comfortable, for he unveiled the corruption which existed 
in those days, and showed such a rotten condition of af- 
fairs that he thus had one of the most effective arguments 
possible against the Empire. His raillery, his scorn, and 
his exposes won him the distinction of being very closely 



ERNEST PICARD. 275 

espied. But he was never troubled, even when the cloak 
of his inviolability as a deputy was thrown aside. 

Picard did the French good service in making every 
possible effort to hinder the foolish Mexican expedition! 
He was re-elected to the Corps Legislatif in 1863, and i. 
was shortly after his re-election that he made numerous 
earnest and eloquent speeches against the Imperial policy 
with regard to the American continent. The people who 
refused to believe him in those days have had a profound 
respect for his judgment ever since. In 1869 he was 
elected by both the Departments of the Seine and the He- 
rault, and chose to represent the latter. He was firmly 
opposed to the Imperial plebiscite, which he rightly con- 
sidered a trap set to catch the unwary ; and as the Em- 
pire became, in outward appearance, more and more in- 
clined to make liberal concessions, he became all the more 
its avowed enemy. In his electoral circular of 1869, he 
stated that his policy was that of the Liberal Union, which 
had aided in his nomination, and whose aim was the over- 
throw of the emperor's personal power. He added : "I' 
am for the Republic which is willingly accepted, rather 
than for the Republic by right divine." 

The portfolio of finance was given to M. Picard when 
the Government of National Defense was formed, and 
he kept it until the Assembly met at Bordeaux, when he 
was elected a deputy from the Department of the Meuse. 
M. Thiers insisted that he should become Minister of the 
Interior in the first Cabinet which he formed, and Picard 
occupied that important post until June, 1871. He then 
resigned, and refused at the same time an appointment as 
governor of the Bank of France, which "Thiers had of- 



2'j6 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

fercd him. He said that he preferred to consecrate him- 
self to his duties as deputy. A few months later, however, 
he accepted the mission of minister plenipotentiary to 
Brussels, but kept up his work as a leg^islator all the time. 
When any important question in which he was interested 
came up for discussion, he took the train from Brussels 
to Versailles, attended the debates, and then returned. 
His friends everywhere called him the deputy- minister. 
His enemies dreaded his sudden entrances into the legis- 
tive hair, and always endeavored to postpone the discus- 
sions at which he had come to assist, M. Picard resigned 
his ministerial position as soon as M. Thiers had fallen 
from power, and at once became one of the most active 
members of the Centre Left. • 

As a deputy in the Assembly, his role in initiating meas- 
ures was quite important. He proposed the law for 
placing the Department of the Seine-et-Oise in a state of 
siege, at the time that the Assembly intended to remove 
from Bordeaux to Versailles. When General Ducrot 
made his noted speech against the " men of the Fourth of 
September," using the term as one of reproach, Picard, 
who was at that time Minister of the Interior, made a 
superb speech, in which he hurled back upon the unsuc- 
cessful general all the calumnies which had been uttered 
by him. " Do you know, gentlemen," he cried, addressing 
the deputies, "who they are who should rightly be called 
the men of the Fourth of September .? They are, above 
all, those who, against all right and all patriotic endeavor, 
blindly obeying the Imperial power, voted a declaration of 
war which was fatal to the country — a declaration which 
we resisted until. the very last minute ! " 



ERNEST PICARD. 2/7 

One day, when dissension was more painful than usual, 
he cried out, " France is not lost, but she will be, if such 
divisions, such fatal differences inflame our debates daily." 

Picard voted for the abrogation of the laws of exile, as 
did his friends Favre, Lefranc, and Simon. He did not 
show himself liberal toward the press. By a decree of the 
jtoth of October, 1870, the Government of the National 
Defense had suppressed the odious and onerous system of 
caution-money, which had done so much to break down 
the independence of journalism in France. Picard, al- 
though an ex-member of that same government, proposed, 
in the National Assembly, the abrogation of the decree, 
and obtained it. He was very severely criticised for this 
illiberal measure, and was at a loss to explain satisfactorily 
why he wished to put the " caution " at work once more. 
Probably he fancied that much was to be gained by muz- 
zling the monarchical press. In this matter, and in the 
determined opposition which he made to certain projects 
of decentralization, claiming that they would tend to 
destroy the national unity, his conduct seems really inex- 
plicable. No one can doubt his sincerity as a lover of 
freedom, but he seems anxious, like so many other 
Frenchmen, to be personally the judge of what that 
freedom shall be. 

In December, 1871, M. Picard, in a committee meeting 
of the Centre Left, offered a proposition inviting the As- 
sembly to put an end to the provisory regime by proclaim- 
ing the republic as the actual government of France ; and 
by creating two chambers in the place of the one huge and 
unwieldy body of nearly eight hundred members. At that 
time the proposition was judged inopportune, and was laid 



2/8 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

aside, although it was admitted by all the friends of repub- 
licanism that it was right in theory. Picard showed then, 
as now he shows, his determination to be contented with 
nothing less than a republican government, as he has con- 
ceived it. If he is no longer as ardent in his opinions as 
he was in 1858, he is none the less sincere in his desire 
for constitutional, and, above all, for good government. 
As a moderate, he of course receives many hard blows 
from the radicals, who would be glad to get him out of the 
way ; standing, as he does, in their way, and hindering 
many of their maddest schemes, he perhaps serves France 
much more effectually than he could in any other manner, 
unless it be in the occasional luminous explanation of 
those financial questions which the other deputies wil- 
lingly leave to h's attention. 




Henri Rochef"ort. 




|HE name of Henri Rochefort is not often spoken, 
of late, in France. The once famous author oiLa 
Lanterne, the fiery editor of the Marseillaise, the 
proscribed politician, the escaped convict, the man on 
whom every eye was fixed in 1869, is now almost forgot- 
ten in his native land. From time to time, when Cassaig- 
nac challenges him to a duel, when he ventures on to 
French territory and is in imminent danger of arrest, or 
when he narrowly escapes drowning in the lake near 
Geneva — a city which he has chosen as his future place of' 
residence — there is a murmur concerning him ; then it dies 
suddenly away. Even Figaro, the brilliant and sprightly 
journal, to whose columns he once contributed so many lead- 
ing articles, no longer visits periodically upon him the 
petty vengeance of its insults, or the gnat-like stings, of 
its small scandals. He has won the only prize for which 
he could possibly have hoped ; the happy lot in which he 
is free, and for the time forgotten. Those of his enemies 
who fancy that he suffers keenly because debarred from 



280 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

the privilege of re-entering France ; those who misunder 
stand him so wofully as to suppose him a disappointed 
and venomous being, whose only ambition is to pull down 
society, feast on the spectacle of political anarchy, and re- 
venge himself on the powers that be ; and those who im- 
agine him a plotting conspirator, coldly concentrating his 
intelligence upon plans for some chimerical government ; 
all these are alike* mistaken. Rochefort is neither dan- 
gerous, demented, nor soured. The terrible events through 
which he has passed since 1870, have naturally left in- 
effaceable scars upon his heart and his memory. But 
those who know him best and judge him most fairly, afiftrm 
that his temper has lost none of the sweetness, once one of 
his chief charms. He has been chastened, not embittered ; 
no man has ever been more willing to recognize his grave 
faults, and to endeavor under the eye of God and man 
to atone for the gravest of them, than Henri Rochefort. 
His wild youth — a youth of passions, reverses, remorses, 
afflictions, triumphs social and professional, duels, im- 
prisonments, hair-breadth escapes, voyages around half the 
world, and controversies which would have struck a chill 
to the hearts of men less courageous — has left him in a 
calm which has something very like apathy in it. Perhaps 
he will one day arise and enter the field of journalism again, 
and do battle as of old ; perhaps, on the contrary, his 
life-work is over, and the Rochefort of the future will con- 
tent himself with the curious reputation of the Rochefort 
of the past. 

It is not entirely singular that there are no impartial 
French biographies of Rochefort in existence. The hun- 
dreds of pamphlets and newspaper articles purporting to 



i 



HENRI ROCHEFORT. 28 1 

give the true story of his early life and subsequent career, 
which appeared when he stepped from the humble position 
of a writer in the controversial press to the proud post of an 
opposition deputy in the Corps Legislatif, were all either 
wretchedly untrue, or so distorted by prejudice and hate, 
as to be totally unreliable. Time was when any penny-a- 
liner, who could invent a lie about Rochefort was sure of 
his market in a dozen of the principal editorial rooms of 
Paris ; when it was the fashion to revile the man who had 
so recently been the "confrere" and the "distinguished" 
collaborateur. People who should have blushed to en- 
gage in such contemptible employment, ransacked the 
past for items which should tell against Rochefort or his 
family. The journalist-politician groaned as he saw what 
a curse his popularity had become to him, and doubtless 
reflected now and then, with woe-begone expression, on the 
fickleness of " friends. " 

From sources believed to be authentic, we get the state- 
ment that Henri Rochefort was in Paris, in July, 1832, at 
a time when the cholera was sweeping off hundreds of 
victims weekly. The child's parents were of aristocratic de- 
scent, although their fortune was beginning to fail, and they 
were very near the bottom round of that ladder which the 
old French families have been so steadily descending ever 
since '93. These parents gave their children the title of 
Count, and the name of Victor Henri de Rochefort-Lufay. 
Although the cholera did not seem inclined to meddle with 
the infant, it was feared that his life would be short, as 
nature had provided him with such an enormous head, 
that his body seemed hardly competent to support it. The 
doctor called the baby-count a young monster, but 



282 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

ended by consoling the parents, and prophesying that the 
head would in due time become better adapted to the 
body. 

The child grew up to youth a timid, awkward, lank 
fellow, whose sleeves were never long enough for his arms, 
and who almost died of fright and bashfulness whenever 
his parents took him into company. Some of his timidity 
was banished by the time he was ready to enter the college 
of Saint Louis in Paris, where he was educated. There he 
showed decided political tendencies ; received plenty of 
compliments from his rhetorical professor, and wrote one- or 
two excellent sonnets to the Virgin, which his Catholic adver- 
saries are fond of quoting against him since he has become 
a "free-thinker," and has condemned the Church in toto. 
At the age of sixteen, Rochefort was except'onally pious, 
and his devotion, so marked fo.r a time as to render him 
liable to a suspicion of bigotry, is said to have been the 
fruit of an excellent sermon preached one afternoon at 
Notre Dame by Father Lacordaire. The wicked and false 
biographists, with malice which has an exclusively French 
savor, announced that a lady relative, very rich and devote, 
had promised her fortune to the young collegian, if he 
would persist in treading the narrow ways of goodness. 
The sonnets to the Virgin are to be seen to-day in the Ar- 
chives of the Academy of Floral Sports at Toulouse. In 
1869, when Rochefort was a candidate for the Corps Legis- 
latif, the Paris Sihcle fished out of oblivion and printed 
these pieces of verse. Their resuscitation undoubtedly 
cost Rochefort many hundreds of votes. 

While Rpchefort was at college he took much interest 
in the course of politics, and avowed himself, even at that 



HENRI ROCHEFORT. 283 

early age, an ardent and earnest Republican. His mother 
had imbued him with her liberal convictions, and he felt 
an intense interest in the fate of the oppressed masses, and 
a supreme scorn for the aristocrats and parvenus, who pro- 
fessed to see nothing but anarchy possible as the result of 
an attempt at free government. The mother was so much 
in earnest in her liberalism, that she refused to have a 
priest at her bedside when she was at the point of death ; 
and this refusal she insisted upon, although her son him- 
self is said to have asked her to receive the consolation 
and the absolution offered by the representative of Holy 
Church. 

In 1848, Rochefort, like most other young Frenchmen 
of talent, did some foolish things. He talked wildly in the 
Robespierre vein, and threatened all tyrants with instant 
immolation. This fever did not last long ; but he grew 
steadily in radical feeling. In the same revolutionary year 
of 1848, an archbishop, who had recently received his pro- 
motion, because his predecessor had been killed at the 
barricades, invited to a grand breakfast the most studious 
and promising pupils from all the Paris Lycees. Roche- 
fort was not only among the number, but was appointed 
by his professor of rhetoric to read a cantata in honor of 
the new archbishop. The young poet carefully kept his 
poem in his desk until the day for the reading came. Then 
he horrified the professors, shocked his fellow-pupils, and 
maddened the archbishop by a series of allusions to political 
events — allusions which, whether or not they were in good 
taste, were certainly cutting. Rochefort at once lost favor 
with his professor. 

At the age of eighteen our hero contemplated the study 



284 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

of medicine, and forthwith became a noticeable figure in 
the Quartier Latin. Student life in that peculiar section 
of one of the most peculiar of cities is a madness which 
does not last long, but which is acute while it endures. 
The victims of this insanity look back with a species of 
stunned wonder at a later period of their existence, upon 
their frolics, their caprices, and their sins in Bohemia. 
Rochefort was as mad as all the others ; he was more 
steady in his attendance upon the Bullier ball than on 
medical lectures ; he wrote roystering songs for the com- 
panions of his joyous existence ; was a prominent member 
of the "processions " whose exploits sometimes brought 
them into unpleasant contact with the police ; hissed and 
broke up benches when anything displeased him and his 
fellows at the Odeon Theater; challenged enemies with 
alarming recklessness, and fought duels with a gd^y abandon, 
which gave him a dubious reputation throughout Paris. 
He did not go to his examinations ; knew very little of the 
inside of the books which he was supposed to be studying, 
and was leading a round of jovial dissipation, when he 
woke up one morning to learn that his family no longer 
possessed a sou in the world, and that he must go to 
work. 

He put away his books and his songs, and began a ca-" 
reer as teacher, in a small way, for the moderate sum of 
thirty sous daily. 

Now, thirty sous, as the French say, "is not the sea to 
drink up," and Master Rochefort found that the "Psalm of 
Life " is a very somber kind of song. But his joyousness 
never deserted him ; he was always hoping for an agree- 
able to-morrow, and would have starved with supremest 



. HENRI ROCHEFORT. 285 

contempt, had not Charles Merruan, an ex-journalist, who 
had an affection for the young count, and who was just 
then an official in the office of the Prefecture of the Seine, 
found for him and offered to him a steady position, worth 
twelve hundred francs per year. Rochefort accepted and 
for some time worked well. But the life of a hack in the 
cells of administration is rather demoralizing from the very 
routine, and the youth soon found it convenient to make 
occasional visits to a neighboring cafe during office hours, 
and to play piquet, &,nd, perhaps, to write a sonnet now 
and then on the marble-topped tables. This conduct soon 
brought reproof from his superior officer upon him, where- 
upon he waxed wroth, and sent a challenge to the superior. 
Rochetort's protector succeeded in securing his protege's 
pardon for these eccentricities, and found him a new place 
in the Bureau of Archives. This was another species of 
living burial. Rochefort, after some vain efforts to endure 
it, rebelled. He was then sent to the Auditor's Office. 
Here he began to understand a little better how to con- 
duct himself, and his long head was seen bent over his 
desk every moment in office hours. But he was not en- 
gaged in doing extra work for the Government ; on the 
contrary, he was busy writing Vaudeville farces, and small 
comedies for the minor theaters. Commerson, of the Tinta- 
marre, was a co-laborer, and the two turned out some cu- 
rious work. Not much of it is alive to-day. When 
Rochefort had too much to do, he gave his office work to 
his neighbor clerk, who cheerfully performed it, taking 
his pay in theater tickets, of which the budding dramatist 
always had his pocket full. The pieces which Rochefort 
and Commerson jointly evolved from their seething brains 



286 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

were nearly all produced at the Vaudeville and the Palais- 
Royal, where excellent acting contributed to help out a 
success which would have been far from certain with dif- 
ferent accessories. The young dramatist-clerk wrote one 
or two buffooneries for the Varietes Theater, and at times 
worked in company with Pierre Veron. 

While he was thus auditing accounts and writing for the 
theater, he was miserably poor, and was constantly looking 
about for some means of increasing his slender income. 
The first journal, a small gazette devoted to the theaters, 
to which he applied, sent him speedily about his business, 
strongly hinting that it had but small opinion of his tal- 
ents. But he speedily proved his right to the title of an 
author by writing some articles of contemporary biography, 
which were very striking, and which made his name gen- 
erally known. He next began writing for the Charivari, 
a grotesque journal, whose popularity is mainly due to its 
excellent caricatures. While engaged on the staff of this 
paper, he had a quarrel with one of the editors of the 
Gaulois, and an "encounter" was the result. Rochefort 
was slightly wounded, and, the evening after the duel, the 
loungers in the three thousand cafes of the city all had his 
name upon their lips. He naturally neglected his hack- 
work in the office of the auditor, and in process of time 
came the demand for his resignation. He gave it, but the 
prefect of the Seine hearing that Rochefort's ancient pro- 
tector had deserted him, called that individual into his 
cabinet and said : 

"What have you done to that poor Rochefort? I am 
going to offer him the post of assistant inspector of fine 
arts, with three thousand francs salary." 



i 



HENRI ROCHEFORT. 28/ 

A few months previously, Rochefort would gladly have 
accepted such an offer ; but he was daily becoming more 
famous in journalism, and he felt it his duty to refuse. He 
left the halls of administration, and looked about him for 
new adventures in the dangerous field of literature. 

Aurelien Scholl was at that time making strenuous en- 
deavors to rival the Figaro, and had decided to found a 
critical and satirical journal called the Yellow Divarf. He 
offered Rochefort an editorial post ; the latter accepted, 
did some exceedingly good work, and was, consequently, 
bought up in a short time by Figaro. Villemessant, the 
ambitious editor of the last-named sheet, gave Rochefort 
five hundred francs monthly for a weekly article. Roche- 
fort wrote well, whatever his enemies may to-day say to the 
contrary ; he was the sensation of the time, and Figaro 
gained immensely in circulation. He was constantly in 
trouble, because he wrote with a sharp pen. His victims 
sent him their cards and their seconds. Their challenges 
were never kept waiting in the ante-chamber. Now it was 
a Spaniard, who fancied that the ex-Queen Isabella had 
been insulted, and who demanded reparation ; now, a 
Frenchman, who supposed that some covert allusion had 
been made to his political sentiments. Rochefort never 
offered any excuses ; he sharpened his pen and wrote 
again, and fought as long and a"s often as his adversaries 
could desire. 

By-and-by a banker, who was a little envious of Fig- 
aro s power, and who, like so many other unfortunate 
wights, fancied that journalism is an easy game to play 
at, founded the Soldi. No sooner had the beams of this 
new intellectual luminary begun to be felt in Paris, than 



288 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

the founder offered Rochefort fifteen hundred francs 
monthly, for a bi-weekly chronicle of events. This was 
superb payment. Rochefort accepted ; but Figaro cap- 
tured him anew next year by offering him two thousand 
francs monthly, and a bonus of three thousand francs. 
New duels succeeded each other rapidly ; princes and 
parvenus measured swords with this lively Gaul, whose 
lean and sinewy form, when he was wielding his rapier 
upon the turf, face to face with his antagonist, reminded 
the lookers-on of Don Quixote doing deeds of valor 
for some imaginary good cause. Rochefort came to 
blows with Paul de Cassaignac, the latter being possessed 
of an amiable desire to kill a journalist who was already 
beginning to be troublesome for the Imperial ring. Cas- 
saignac was the insulter ; the young men went to Belgium 
to settle their differences, but there they met some grave- 
looking gendarmes, who sneered at their ferocity, and con- 
ducted them to the frontier. They then betook them- 
selves to a plain near Paris, where Rochefort received a 
bullet wound, and Cassaignac professed himself, for the 
time, satisfied. 

Underneath the current of Rochefort's curious and 
excited existence all this time, ran a current of intense 
contempt for the corrupt and ignoble people whom he pil- 
loried from week to week. He had, long before the 
power of the spell which the Second Empire had cast over 
France had begun to. wane, dared to speak out boldly and 
emphatically against certain abuses practiced by the Impe- 
rial party, and he was usually on the side of truth in his 
accusations. When Napoleon arrived at the zenith of his 
power, in 1867, and when the gilded bubble of the 



HENRI ROCHEFORT. 289 

Empire was attracting the attention of the whole world, 
that bubble received a sharp stab from Rochefort's danger- 
ous pen. The popular chronicler, who might have con- 
tented his readers and continued to earn his splendid 
salary by simply winking at political hypocrisy and wick- 
edness in high places, had the courage to say to the French 
people that they were worshiping an odious sham. The 
first articles in the columns of Figaro which had a tendency 
to throw discredit upon the Imperialists were passed over 
in silence. But at last came one signed "Henri Roche- 
fort," which drew the attention of the judges. The Figaro 
was at that time only a literary journal by name, and was, 
therefore, not obliged to deposit caution-money. But, as 
soon as Villemessant, the editor, received a notice that his 
paper had offended the "superior authority," he at once 
deposited the sum necessary as a kind of bail, and Figaro 
became political. Rochefort renewed his attacks on the 
Empire and the emperor. The editor-in-chief ol Figaro 
was summoned to a ministerial cabinet, and explanations 
were demanded. A few days thereafter, it was announced 
that Rochefort was no longer a member of the editorial 
staff. 

The Lanierne was then created. Rochefort put his lance 
in rest, and ran at full tilt against the government. The 
appearance of a little pamphlet, in red covers, with a lan- 
tern engraved upon them, with Rochefort's name as the 
author, and with a heavy caution-deposit behind the enter- 
prise, one day startled all Paris. 7 he promenaders on the 
boulevards grew pale as they read the audacious accusa- 
tions which a simple citizen hurled at the head of the 
emperor. The bourgeois shopkeeper put up his shutters 



290 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

earlier than usual. The excitable working-men gathered 
in groups, and, despite the spies sent among them, dis- 
cussed the new sensation. Thousands, hundreds of thou- 
sands of the pamphlets were scattered throughout France ; 
they were seized in one place and burned, but were speed- 
ily heard of in another. The Imperial family at first, 
smiled at the venture ; then, as the Lanterne beamed more 
brightly week by week, and as its flame seemed to grow 
more and more lurid, they were annoyed. Soon they be- 
came frightened, and then the Empire's agents began to 
take decisive measures. Rochefort, intoxicated with the 
exercise of the strange power which fate or hazard had 
placed in his hands, grew careless. He wrote too freely ; 
his flippant rem.arks concerning the empress procured him 
condemnations which made it necessary to leave France. 
The Lanterne was compelled to shed its beams upon the 
frontier-wall. The circulation of the pamphlet, which at 
one time had been as much as one hundred and twenty 
thousand copies weekly, fell to four thousand. Not a copy 
was allowed to enter France through the post-office, and 
travelers carrying the fiery document in their luggage were 
rendered liable to heavy fines. Rochefort, weary, and 
smarting under a sense of temporary defeat, did not write 
as well as usual, and his daring literary-political adventure 
came to an end after a few weeks of existence. 

Meantime, the man who had dared to beard the em- 
peror was sought out during his exile by other exiles, who 
perceived what a powerful engine Rochefort's pen had be- 
come, and how strong it would be in aiding to produce 
the desired upheaval in France. The wags, who are never 
weary of making jokes about Victor Hugo, related that 



HENRI ROCHEFORT. 29I 

the great poet was dining one day in the midst of his fam- 
ily, in the house which he had taken at Brussels, when 
Rochefort's card was sent in. 

"Henri Rochefort .? " said Hugo, "I don't know any 
M. Rochefort. Here is my son Charles — here is my son 
Franfois. I have a third married — Henri. Let my son 
Henri come in." 

Thus adopted, Rochefort laid his plans for the future 
before M. Hugo. At this very first interview, the creation 
of the Rappel, a daily ultra-republican paper in Paris, was 
decided upon. In a short time, Franyois and Charles 
Hugo, Auguste Vacquerie, and Paul Maurice began work, 
swearing to Rochefort that they would open the doors of 
the Corps Legislatif to him, and that the population of 
Paris would see to it that he was safely placed in his seat, 
if elected. 

The Rappel was founded, most of its editors remain- 
ing in Brussels. It was a lively newspaper, filled with 
little illustrations, between the paragraphs, of drummers 
violently beating revolutionary drums. The Hugos helped 
it speedily to an immense circulation. There were perse- 
cutions, condemnations, months in the prison of Sainte- 
Pelagie for those of the editors who were to be reached ; 
but they did their work well. They proposed Rochefort 
as a candidate for legislative honors. The boldness of 
this proposition took even the emperor by storm. Napo- 
leon saw that the opposition to his policy and to his dy- 
nasty, begun in 1868, had increased ten-fold in 1869 ; and 
now came the proposal that the enemy whom he had com- 
pelled to retreat into exile, under the shower of a score of 
legal condemnations, should become inviolable in the per- 



292 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

son of a deputy. It frightened him, as it was an unmis- 
takable sign of approaching revolution ; but he carried 
his policy of bravado to the extreme, and even then contem- 
plated a general amnesty act, permitting Rochefort and 
others to return to France. But Rochefort's candidacy, 
proposed to the people in May, 1869, against that of Jules 
Favre in the seventh Paris circonscription, was a fail- 
ure. The June elections gave him only a few thousand 
votes, and induced some small rioting, which did" the Re- 
publican cause in France much more harm than good. 
The Imperialists breathed freer after Rochefort's defeat, 
and when asked if they did not dread him in the future, 
replied by the Amnesty Act, which the emperor fancied 
would do much toward winning him back his lost pop- 
^ularity. Rochefort was once more endowed with his rights 
of citizenship, of which a sentence had deprived him, be- 
cause of his conduct while editing the Lantenie. 

Rochefort came back to Paris soon after the declaration 
of the amnesty. He was arrested on the frontier, but was 
at once released. An attempt was made to show that the 
empress had interfered in his behalf, but he wrote a letter 
denying this, and saying that he did not wish to be safe. 
He added, in the closing paragraphs of this epistle : ' ' My 
ingratitude is more radical than ever." It was evident 
that he had not returned to his native country in a thank- 
ful mood. On the evening of his arrival from Brussels, 
he appeared in the court-yard of the Grand Hotel in a 
sack-coat and a rather dilapidated wide-awake. The "'soft 
hat " is an emblem of Republicanism in the eyes of the 
Paris bourgeois. The next day Rochefort was set down 
as a "child of the people," "one of the masses," an ^^ en- 



HENRI ROCHEFORT. 295 

fani du boulevard" and, by his enemies, a demagogue. 
Wherever he appeared in public, an immense crowd fol- 
lowed him. He was hailed by working-men, and ac- 
claimed by thousands, who looked upon hirn as one "of 
the many who were doing their best to bring on the great 
struggle. 

The young politician soon appeared again before the peo- 
ple as a candidate for the Corps Legislatif. In November, 
1869, he was frequently seen at mass-meetings or "elec- 
toral reunions," as'^ they are called in France. These 
meetings were usually held in some of the large public 
halls which abound in the remote quarters of the city, or 
in the suburbs, and which serve for ball-rooms on Sun- 
day evenings, and for conferences now and then. None 
except voters were expected to attend, and the police were 
very strict in their examinations of applicants for admis- 
sion at the doors. If Rochefort were announced to speak 
at an electoral meeting on the Boulevard de Clichy, at some 
distance from the city's center, the moment that his car- 
riage left the boulevard it was as closely watched by po- 
lice as though it contained some great criminal, whose es- 
cape would be a public disaster. On the platform at all 
those meetings appeared the Imperial police commissioner, 
who had the right to disperse the assemblage, and arrest 
the orators if anything occurred to displease him. 

On one occasion, at a meeting in Belleville, the police 
commissioner and Rochefort had quite a controversy. 
Rochefort began a brief, but carefully prepared harangue, 
in which a sentence ended with the word " Republican." 

"Don't use that word, if you please," said the commis- 
sioner. 



294 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

But Rochefort, being a notoriously bad speaker, had 
learned iiis words by heart, and could not change them 
readily. He very soon came to another sentence in which 
the forbidden word occurred. 

The police commissioner advised him not to be the 
means of dispersing the meeting, and insisted that the 
word should not be used. 

Rochefort angry was a much better speaker than 
Rochefort tranquil. He turned fiercely upon the unhappy 
official, and gave him such an oratorical scorching as he 
did not soon forget. He analyzed the obnoxious word, 
and the reason why it was tabooed under the Empire ; then 
repeated it, ending a third sentence with it. 

The commissioner pronounced the customary formula, 
declaring the meeting adjourned without day, and stalked 
out of the hall, accompanied by barkings and mewings 
from the audience. The session was recklessly continued 
for an hour, but the police did not think it prudent to in- 
terfere. 

The ex-editor of the Lanterne found his popularity in- 
creasing. On the second evening after his arrival from 
Brussels, his carriage had been dragged through the streets 
by the populace ; and he now found himself the pet of the 
people of the revolutionary faubourgs. He was called upon 
for many disagreeable and dangerous missions ; he pre- 
sided at meetings of workmen who were on strikes, and 
the writer once saw him on the platform at a reunion in 
the cock-loft of a manufactory at La Villette. The great 
beams of the loft, from which hung a few lanterns dimly 
lighting up the shadows, were decorated with gamms, 
whose shrill voices and comical comments were irresistible. 



HENRI ROCHEFORT. 295 

Rough wooden seats had been improvised for the two thou- 
sand people who crowded the uncomfortable place. Most 
of the people were intelligent middle-aged men, who had 
their wives and children with them. Outside there was a 
tumultuous crowd, bullying the police and threatening to 
break their heads if not allowed to enter. 

The elections of November, 1869, gave Rochefort a seat 
in the Corps Legislatif, at the hands of the voters of the 
First Paris Cir conscription. The conservative press was 
highly disgusted ; the radical world was in ecstasy. 
Gloomy prophecies of coming anarchy were indulged in 
by all the monarchical and imperialist papers. Rochefort, 
meantime, founded a journal called the Marseillaise, al- 
most as outspoken against the Empire as the Lanterne had 
been. As soon as elected, he naturally gave the chief 
editorship of this paper into the hands of one of his friends, 
as he did not wish to take advantage of the inviolability of 
his person as a deputy to write against his political ene- 
mies. 

Rochefort's entrance into the Corps Legislatif Avas a 
memorable occasion. On "opening day," there was a 
brilliant audience of ladies and gentlemen in the galleries. 
The "opposition" members marched in a solid body, 
but Rochefort was not among them. Just as an impatient 
murmur was heard, however, the young journalist stepped 
coolly into the hall, made a gentle bow which answered 
for everybody, as he stood for a moment under the glare 
of hundreds of unsympathetic eyes, then walked slowly 
to his seat, stopping a moment to shake hands with 
his venerable republican colleague Raspail. The ladies 
present said afterwards that Rochefort wore red gloves. 



296 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

The career of Rochefort in the Corps Legislatif was 
short. He felt himself out of place ; was not even quite 
aggressive enough to satisfy the electors of the "eccentric 
quarters ; " and the absence of his impassioned denun- 
ciation from the columns of the Marseillaise was daily 
felt. 

Among the editors of the Marseillaise was a young man 
named Victor Noir. He was enthusiastic and talented, 
lacking possibly in that fine range of reading which might 
have softened his mode of expression ; but wonderfully 
clever. He was brought up in the streets, and at twenty- 
two united to the natural wit of the gamin an extraordi- 
nary physical strength, and a fine presence. Victor Noir 
had himself, once upon a time, published a little journal 
printed in red ink, and called The Pillory, which was mer- 
ciless for political offenders, and was consequently hunted 
and suppressed by the police. 

Rochefort received early in January of 1870 a furious 
letter from Prince Pierre Bonaparte, endeavoring to pro- 
voke him to a duel. The young deputy had not yet made 
his answer public, when on the morning of the loth of 
January, Victor Noir and another gentleman called upon 
Prince Pierre in his residence in Auteuil, and sent in their 
cards. On being received, they announced that they came 
on the part of their friend Paschal Grousset, whom the 
prince had some time before grievously insulted. The 
prince, having read the letter which Noir and his com- 
panion had brought him, turned very pale, tore up the 
missive, and said : 

"I am concerned with Rochefort, and not with his 
hangers-on." 



HENRI ROCHEFORT. 297 

The gentlemen answered that they had been requested 
by their friend to bring the letter, and that they had noth- 
ing to do with the Rochefort affair. 

The prince then said : "I have provoked Rochefort, 
because he carries the flag of the canaille. As to M. 
Grousset, I have nothing to say. Are you then, the sns- 
tainers of these blackguards .? " 

"My dear sir," said Noir's companion, "we come 
here loyally and courteously to fulfill the request of a 
friend. " 

" But are you supporters of these miserable wretches.?" 

Victor Noir answered, " We stand by our friends." 

Prince Pierre then struck young Not a furious blow in 
the face, and immediately afterwards drew a pistol and 
fired at Noir's breast. 

The journalist threw up both hands, ran out, and fell 
before the door. In a few moments he was dead. 

The prince afterwards alleged that Noir first struck him, 
but this version of the story was universally discredited. 

The news electrified Paris ; shops were at once closed ; 
police thronged the streets ; but the evening passed with- 
out any manifestations. The next morning the Marseil- 
laise appeared bordered with mourning, and in its columns 
it was strongly hinted that Prince Pierre had endeavored 
to entice Rochefort into his house for the purpose of kill- 
ing him ; but that he had contented himself with the 
slaughter of Noir. There were other violent articles which 
the government chose to construe as an appeal to arms ; 
the Marseillaise was seized, and the presses were put under 
lock and key. 

In the Corps Legislatif, as soon as the session was 
13* 



■298 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

opened, Rochefort ascended the tribune, and cried out , 
"Yesterday a young man, covered by the sacred protection 
of second in an affair of honor, was assassinated. Tlie as- 
sassin is a member of the Imperial family. The assassi- 
nated is a child of the people. " 

These words produced a tremendous sensation ; Roche- 
fort proceeded to demand that a jury be drawn from the 
people, to sit in judgment upon Prince Pierre. The presi- 
dent ordered him to leave the tribune, whereupon Roche- 
fort invited all good citizens to arm and take justice into 
their own hands. But the majority were already preparing 
a scheme for the impeachment of Rochefort, for his articles 
in the Marseillaise, as having incited to revolt and civil 
war. The daring deputy was escorted to his lodgings by 
a determined-looking crowd of workmen, who sang the 
Marseillaise with an emphasis which made the old Impe- 
rialists ominously shake their heads. 

Prince Bonaparte was sent to prison. In the Concier- 
gerie he heard vague rumors that riots were beginning in 
certain quarters, and announced his desire to be given the 
command of a regiment of gendarm.erie, that he might go 
out and quell the disturbance. The funeral of Noir was 
celebrated on the Wednesday following the Monday of the 
assassination. All the workshops in the popular quar- 
ters were closed, and the workmen, with their wives and 
children, came in thousands to be present at the little cem- 
etery of Neuilly. By eleven o'clock at least two hundred 
thousand of the common people were on foot, marching in 
serried ranks, and making few noisy demonstrations. 
Regiments of regular troops were massed in the Bois de 
Boulogne. By-and-by came long processions singing 



HENRI ROCHEFORT. 299 

revolutionary songs. Thousands of persons stood pa- 
tiently for six hours in the same place that they might cast 
flowers upon the coffin as it was borne in front of them. 
Women fainted or wept from excess of emotion, and com- 
ments upon the murder drew down most unqualified male- 
diction upon the Bonaparte dynasty. 

Toward four o'clock, the old guardian of the little 
Neuilly cemetery struggled through the crowd and opened 
the gate. Down the avenue to the entrance, amidst silent 
thousands and a storm of immortelles, marched sixteen 
bare-headed men, brother journalists of young Noir, bear- 
ing on their shoulders the bier. At their head marched 
Rochefort, pale but resolute. At the grave he fainted, but 
speedily recovered, and disappeared while the crowd was 
wildly shouting " Vive Rochefort !" and dispersing to the 
tune of the Marseillaise. 

January of 1870 was a troublous month for the Impe- 
rialists, and they attributed all their embarrassments to the 
influence of Rochefort. The people were ripe for riot. 
On the night of the execution of Troppmann, a noted 
assassin, the town was filled with troops. The execution 
took place in front of the prison of the condemned, in one 
of the quarters inhabited mainly by workmen, and it was 
feared that the passions of a great assemblage before the 
guillotine might be kindled into such a rage that the mob 
would march upon the Tuileries. Paris, in those tumul- 
tuous January days, was more like a fortified camp than a 
metropolis. 

Early in February, the chamber having authorized the 
prosecution of Rochefort because of his supposed revolu- 
tionary language on the occasion of Noir's assassination, 



300 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

the famous deputy was excluded from the pohtical world. 
The Empire's supporters felt that they must act with vigor, 
and they therefore ran the risk of riots. One evening, a 
mass meeting in an obscure quarter was announced, with 
Rochefort.as president. Several police agents posted them- 
selves outside the building in which the electors were as- 
sembled, and, when Rochefort arrived at the door, he felt a 
hand laid on his arm. It was that of a quietly dressed 
gentleman, who invited him to accompany him to the 
neighboring police station, Rochefort looked around, 
saw at once that he was surrounded, and offered no re- 
sistance. In twenty minutes he was at Sainte-Pelagie, the 
prison of political offenders. 

Inside the great ill-lighted hall, where the uncouth audi- 
ence was crowded, breathlessly listening to an excited 
speaker who was filling the place of the belated Rochefort, 
loud cries were suddenly heard : 

' ' Rochefort is arrested ! " 

"They are going to assassinate him ! " 

"To arms ! Down with Napoleon ! " 

Gustave Flourens, who had, it was said, endeavored to 
incite a revolt on the day of Noir's funeral, drew a revolver, 
and, crying to others to follow him, rushed out of doors. 
Many of the workmen also drew pistols ; others were 
armed with guns, mysteriously brought to them at a mo- 
ment's riotice ; still others had clubs. The mob hastened 
out into the night ; erected barricades ; broke open ar- 
morer's shops, and bonneted policemen. In due time 
these rioters were dispersed, only to be followed by others, 
who made formidable demonstrations, even on the central 
boulevards. Rochefort, imprisoned in Sainte-Pelagie, ere- 



HENRI ROCHEFORT. 30I 

ated more disturbance in Paris than Rochefort in the office 
of the Marseillaise or Rochefort in the Corps Legislatif. 
Hundreds of policemen swarmed in the streets, and troops 
of cavalry patrolled the narrow avenues leading to La Vil- 
lette, where the troubles had begun. People were every- 
where so apprehensive and nervous that the slightest 
unusual sound frightened them. An awning, insecurely 
fastened in front of a cafe, fell, on the second evening 
after Rochefort's arrest. There was, of course, some con- 
fusion ; the passers-by interpreted it as a riot, and there 
was a veritable stampede before the real facts were made 
known to the crowd. A grim-looking sergent-de-ville 
mounted a chair. "It is only an awning, and not the 
Empire," he said, "that has fallen." 

Rochefort was active during his imprisonment. A few 
days after his arrest he showed that he intended still to 
take a part in the business of the Corps Legislatif, and he 
sent by one of his deputy friends a project for the impeach- 
ment of the Government and the ministry, which he tried 
to have read in his name. The failure of this scheme did 
not discourage him. He was taken from prison to serve 
as a witness before the high court of justice, assembled at 
Tours, to try Prince Pierre Bonaparte. There RoShefort 
won golden opinions from all by his gentlemanly carriage 
and his great moderation of language. 

He remained prisoner for six months. There were pre- 
vious sentences against him, and when the time came for 
his release from the sentence for the ofifen-se of " appeal 
to arms," the minister of justice insisted that he should 
sei"ve out his other terms. A short time before this he had 
announced that he had concluded to publish the Mar- 



302 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

seillaise no longer at that time, but that it would re-appear 
* ' when Rouget de I'lsle's hymn^for the moment Bona- 
partist and ofificial — should have become seditious and Re- 
publican." He thus alluded to the efforts which the Em- 
pire was then making to break down political opposition 
to it in presence of the foreign enemy, at the outbreak of 
the Franco-Prussian war. 

The revolution of the Fourth of September opened the 
. doors of Rochefort's prison, and enabled him to write once 
more in the Marseillaise. It was indisputable that he had 
contributed very largely to the downfall of the Empire, and 
he was at once made a member of the Government of Na- 
tional Defense. He won, in ma-ny respects, the esteem 
and friendship of his colleagues, and would have, doubt- 
less, remained associated with them had not an article 
written by General Cluseret, and reflecting severely on the 
Government of National Defense, unaccountably found a 
place in the columns of the Marseillaise. Rochefort dis- 
claimed all knowledge of the article ; himself criticised it 
as odious and improper, and at once gave notice that he 
should thenceforth have nothing further to do with the ed- 
itorship of the Marseillaise. Late in September, when the 
Prussians were beginning to be very aggressive at the gates 
of Paris, Rochefort was made president of the ' ' Barricade 
Commission." A short time afterwards, when he was 
strongly urged by Flourens and others to give his resigna- 
tion, he replied in a very remarkable letter, in which he 
expressed his determination to keep his place until the 
Prussians should retire from before Paris. M. Jules Favre, 
in his "Simple Recital " of the events during the siege, 
ihus. speaks of Rochefort : 



HENRI ROCHEFORT. 303 

"Our colleague, M. de Rochefort, had not appeared on 
the day of the 31st.'' (This was the 31st of October, when 
the first communal insurrection occurred,) "The next 
morning he was present at the council held in the Ministry 
of Foreign Affairs ; then he ceased to come to our sessions, 
and a few days thereafter he sent in his resignation. Up 
to that time his attitude towards us had been perfectly sat- 
isfactory. He manifested an extreme deference and a re- 
spectful confidence for General Trochu. Some other 
members of the Government were scarcely able to flatter 
themselves that they filled him with the same sentiments 
toward themselves, but all found him invariably courteous 
and conciliatory ; and it was for them a subject of no small 
astonishment to find him in our daily relations so entirely 
unlike the politician whose pamphlets had given him such 
an unsavory reputation." 

The truth is, that the ex-editor of the Za«/^r«^ was not 
at the meeting of the Government of National Defense on 
the 31st of October, for the reason that he was at the Ho- 
tel de Ville trying to dissuade the unhappy Communists 
from persevering in their mad attempt. He labored for 
more than twelve hours in endeavors to calm the expted 
crowd, and dissuaded them from proceeding to any extreme 
measures. Some of the madcaps had already placed his 
name on a hastily extemporized list of members of a "Com- 
mittee of Public Safety." He committed a great impru- 
dence, however, on that day : he promised the mob that 
the municipal elections for which they were clamoring 
should be held without delay. The Government did not 
feel itself in a position to fulfill this promise, and M. Roche- 
fort thereupon resigned. After order had been restored, 



304 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

he was urged to withdraw his resignation. He steadfastly 
refused to do this, but remained at the head of the " Bar- 
ricade Commission," and made many patriotic appeals to 
the population, which were not without good results. 

In February of 1871, Rochefort founded in Paris a new 
journal, called the Mot dOrdre, which was as aggressive and 
brilliant as his other newspapers had been, and which gave 
Gambetta vigorous support in all his undertakings. When 
the elections for the National Assembly were held, he was 
elected a member from the department of the Seine, the 
sixth in rank out of forty-three, and had one hundred and 
sixty-five thousand six hundred and seventy votes out of 
■three hundred and twenty-eight thousand nine hundred 
and seventy. He was but little heard of during the pro- 
cess of reconstruction at Bordeaux, save on one occasion, 
when in a brief speech, he declared that this time the "re- 
publicans would not allow themselves to be cheated out of 
the Republic." He voted against the measures prelimi- 
nary to peace ; and when they were adopted, he resigned. 
He was at this time much broken in health, on account 
of the excitements and hardships through which he had 
passed ; but at the outbreak of the Commune, in March, 
he was in Paris, battling against the Assembly in his Moi 
dOrdre, Avhich had already once been ordered. to suspend 
publication. 

The mad epoch of passion and destruction began, and 
Rochefort did not seem as anxious as in the previous Octo- 
ber to avert disorder. He defended many of the measures 
of the farnous "Central Committee" of the insurrections; 
but took no active part in the revolt, and refused to become 
a member of the Commune. It was he 'who suggested 



HENRI ROCHEFORT. 305 

the destruction of the mansion of M. Thiers ; who coun- 
seled resistance to the last, and who wrote much which, 
in a variety of ways, contributed to embitter the quarrel. 
He was not of the Commune, yet was a powerful aid to 
it. The Communal authorities found thar he occasionally 
criticised them severely, and they therefore persecuted his 
journal from time to time. At last he announced that 
'* in presence of the situation created for the press by the 
Commune, the Moi d'Ordre believed it necessary to its dig- 
nity to cease to appear." He then, a few days before the 
troops from Versailles succeeded in entering Paris, left 
the city, hoping to regain Brussels, but was arrested at 
Meaux on the 20th of May, and taken to Versailles, where 
he was thrust into prison. 

Rochefort remained several months in confinement, 
awaiting his trial, and suffering from a very grave cerebral 
malady, which at times threatened to destroy him. During 
his imprisonment, he legalized his children by marrying 
their mother when she was at the point of death. In Sep- 
tember of 1 87 1, he was condemned before a court martial, 
upon nine different indictments, and sentenced to transporta- 
tion with confinement in a fortress. The commission on 
pardons rejected his appeal, and, although Victor Hugo 
and others made pressing and pathetic requests for a com- 
mutation of sentence by M. Thiers, the old President re- 
mained firm. Rochefort, after weary transfer from one 
fortress to another, was sent to New Caledonia. At the 
date of his departure from France, he was declared a vic- 
tim of heart disease, and his enemies confidently ex- 
pected that he would die during the long and cruel 
voyage. His judges forgot him, and the public ceased to 



306 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

think of him, for New Caledonia is many thousands of 
miles away. 

The story of his romantic escape from that terrible 
Noumea, of which, since his return to Europe, he has 
given the world such startling pictures, is familiar to all. 
Rochefort, with two companions, succeeded in getting 
away from the island where he was a prisoner, and put to 
sea in an open boat. Picked up by a passing ship, the 
refugees were carried into Sidney, whence, after a brief so- 
journ, they made their way to the United States, via the 
Sandwich Islands. The ex-editor of the L'anterne staid 
in New York only long enough to give a lecture to his 
countrymen. He appeared at the Academy of Music, and 
gave a brief account of his sufferings and those of his fel- 
low exiles, after which he went to London and Geneva. 
In the latter city he at present lives, with his daughter, 
devoting a portion of his time to literature. He has writ- 
ten a novel since his return, and publishes a Lanterne 
which, although forbidden in France, is said to find quite 
a circulation in that country. 

This clever Frenchman, who has been so much the creat- 
ure of circumstance, and has been buffeted and tossed about 
by variable fortune from his early youth, is tall, angular, 
and reserved in appearance. His high forehead, crowned 
with springy hair, which nothing can keep down; is now fur- 
rowed with wrinkles of care and sorrow. His whole manner 
is tranquil and sober ; he has been toned and mellowed by 
misfortune and the hundred dangers through which he 
has passed. He wields the same brilliant and facile pen 
as of old. Sometimes the old Rochefort crops out, as 
in the letter of challenge which he recently sent to Paul 



HENRI ROCHEFORT. 307 

de Cassaignac. But his life is no longer a perpetual 
defiance. He is in the attitude of waiting, and he 
seems to have learned that 

" They also serve who only stand and wait." 



Casimir Perier. 




ASIMIR PERIER will always be gratefully re- 
membered by lovers of liberty in France, because, 
in times when men were timid and distrustful, he 
had the courage and good sense to avow his faith in the 
Republic. After his mind was once made up that the mo- 
ment had arrived when France should be free, he worked 
faithfully and unfalteringly, as he still works, to secure the 
most liberal institutions possible. He cares little what 
men say of him ; he is not irritable and p'etulant like his 
brother-in-law, the Due D'Audififret-Pasquier, nor does 
he halt between two opinions until he can decide which is 
likely to be the most popular. He has never, for an in- 
stant, associated with the radical and arbitrary party. In 
the days when Broglie and his men were engaged in top- 
pling down Thiers and his ministry, and accused them of 
not being able to maintain order, M. Perier, who was then 
the Thiers Minister of the Interior, expressly stated J:hat 
neither he nor the gentlemen associated with him in the 
Cabinet had ever manifested any intention of affiliating 



CASIMIR PERIER. 309 

with the "radical party." As a conservative republican, 
he has had immense influence during the battles which 
have been fought over the ccwistitutional laws. Early in 
1873 he had already become convinced that monarchical 
restoration was impossible, and, in a public letter, he de- 
manded the "end of a provisory and precarious regirne, 
and, in its stead, institutions which would give to the 
government the force it needed to reassure all interests 
by the exercise of a firm and clear policy. " He pointed 
out in this letter; which contributed much toward form- 
ing public sentiment at the time, that the future would 
naturally inspire more confidence when the public powers, 
properly organized, were no longer daily questioned, 
and when "everything should not appear to rest upon 
the shoulders of one man. " It was nothing less than the 
definite organization of the Republic which Casimir Perier 
demanded long before many of his colleagues dared to ask 
for it. '- 

This honest and unwavering man is the son of the cel- 
ebrated statesman and minister under the July monarchy, 
who died in 1832, Auguste Victor Laurent Casimir Perier 
was born in Paris on the loth of August, 181 1. He 
was a promising and ambitious youth, and, at the age of 
twenty, had not only achieved a remarkable education, 
but, as first secretary of the Embassy at Brussels, had en- 
tered a diplomatic career. He rose rapidly in this profes- 
sion, for the exercise of which he had most brilliant endow- 
ments. He was successively charge d'affaires at Naples and 
at St. Petersburg, and minister at Hanover, and held sec- 
retaryships in London and at the Hague. He left diplo- 
matic life after a few years of experience in it, and, in 



3IO BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

1846, was elected to the chamber among the liberal con- 
servatives from the first Paris district. After the February 
revolution, he returned to 'his estate in the department 
of the Aube, where he remained until early in 1849, 
when he was sent to the Assembly by the electors of the 
Aube. There, he associated and voted constantly with the 
Right. 

The advent of the Empire was not without its trouble 
for Casimir Perier. He was at the meeting of deputies in 
one of the Paris mayoralties, where an energetic protest was 
made against Louis Napoleon's perfidy on the day of the 
coup d'etat. He was arrested, like the others, and thrown 
into a dungeon in Fort Valerien, where he was kept in 
close confinement for some days. As there, was no direct 
accusation against him, he was liberated, and, inspired by 
a profound contempt -for the Empire and the chain of cir- 
cumstances which had rendered it possible, he retired to 
his chateau of Vezille, a charming retreat among the green 
fields and rich forests of the Isere. There he devoted him- 
self to agricultural improvement, and to occasional ven- 
tures into literature, such as his article on the finances of 
the Second Empire, published in the Revue des Deux 
Mondes — an article which created a profound sensation. 
He had been notably prominent in the Assembly of 1849, 
as a member of that group which sustained the policy of 
Napoleon and his allies until a short time before the forma- 
tion of the ministry which preceded \kiQ coup d'etat; and his 
words of criticism upon the Empire had much weight. 
The Imperialists learned to dread him, not merely because 
he wrote them steadily and sternly down, but because an 
annoying liberalism pervaded his writings on co-operative 



CASIMIR PERIER. 3II 

societies and on financial reform. His various essays on 
these subjects secured him a membership in the Academy 
of Moral and Political Sciences. When he returned to the 
political field in 1869, he was one of the best-known men 
in France, and the Imperialists determined that he should 
not be elected, and allowed to oppose them openly. M. 
Casimir Perier presented himself in the Department of 
the Aube as an independent candidate for the Corps Le- 
gislatif. But he was beaten by the Empire's official can- 
didate, M. Argence, who was helped to his triumph by 
most scandalous intrigues, which contributed much towards 
disgusting honest folk with the reign of Imperial corrup- 
tion. 

M. Perier was quietly reposing on his literary laurels at 
his home near Pont-sur-Seine, when the Franco-Prussian 
war broke out. During the invasion he was captured by 
the Prussians and was taken to Germany as a hostage. He 
remained there until the signature of the armistice, when 
he returned at once to France, and soon took his seat in 
the Assembly as a member elect from three departments. 
He chose the Centre Left as his position, and gave an ear- 
nest support to Thiers' policy. As he was one of the most 
competent authorities on finance in the Assembly, he was 
chosen reporter-general of the budget, and, on the death 
of Lambrecht, Minister of the Interior, he received the 
portfolio of that office. He was in this position as liberal 
as Broglie was subsequently repressive and arbitrary. He 
signalized his first week of office by sending to the pre- 
fects of all the departments in France a circular, in which 
he explained the principles of government in a really free 
country, and gave his own adhesion frankly to a Republic 



312 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

— not "one that should be exclusive and intolerant, but 
one in which the way should be open to all men of good 
will." He gave all functionaries a strong intimation, in 
this circular, that it was their bounden duty to see that 
the Republic was respected, a duty which has been but 
poorly performed since that time. "In a Republic," he 
wrote, ' ' the vigorous repression of an attack upon the 
State is all the more obligatory, because it is not the 
interests of dynasty, person, or party which are to be de- 
fended, but the sacred weal of all public peace and labor." 
At the epoch of the elections he also showed his wisdom 
and liberality by issuing the following instructions : 
"Above all, let every citizen, under the inspiration of his 
own conscience, deposit his own vote independently in the 
electoral urn." He warned the Republic against the dan- 
ger and shame of copying the Imperial tactics with regard 
to " official candidates. " 

A curious obstinacy on the part of M. Casimir Perier, 
with regard to the location of the National Assembly after 
it left Bordeaux, was the cause of his resignation from the 
ministerial post which he occupied with so much honor. 
M. Perier insisted that the return to Paris was indispen- 
sable to public order and to the transaction of National 
business. He probably saw, later, that it was well that 
his opinion did not prevail. But, at the time that the 
question was under discussion, he was so firmly convinced 
that he was right, that he made a speech in which he de- 
clared the impossibility of conducting the administration 
at Versailles, and when the Assembly refused to return to 
Paris, he, on the 4th of February, 1872, resigned. It 
was considered a somewhat ungracious resentment on his 



CASIMIR PERIER. 313 

part, as he had been solicited by hundreds of the deputies 
to remain in power. 

He had no sooner left the ministry than he endeavored 
to form a league of conservative Republicans, which was 
to serve as a means of alliance between the Centre Right 
and the Centre Left in the Assembly. In this he did not 
succeed at all. A few members of the Centre Left were 
at first attracted by his proposition, but speedily resumed 
their places. Renouncing this enterprise without mani- 
festing any special disappointment, M. Casimir Perier de- 
voted his whole time and energy to solidifying the Repub- 
lic. He wrote an explanation in the newspapers in May, 
1872, of the process of reasoning by which he, who had 
been long and ardently attached to the ideal of consti- 
tutional monarchy, had been led to "pronounce bold- 
ly and without reservation for the Republican form of 
government." He asserted his belief that it is the only 
government which "seems to-day destined to preserve 
France from a crisis of anarchy, the certain prelude 
of some form of despotism, without speaking of exterior 
dangers. " .* 

Thiers called M. Casimir Perier into the Cabinet again 
as Minister of the Interior on the 19th of May, 1873. His 
ministry this time lasted scarcely a week. On the 24th he 
was defeated, in company with his venerable chief, after 
having presented and defined, with zeal and eloquence, 
the conservative Republican policy which he had intended 
to carry out. He could have been of incalculable service 
to the cause of liberty, had he been allowed to remain in 
office for a year or two after May, 1874. 

The name of Casimir Perier would always have been 



314 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

associated in France with ideas of liberty and honor, had 
not the noble convert to Republicanism crowned his fame 
by proposing-, on the 15th of June, 1874, in the name of 
the Centre Left, his proposition in favor of the definite es- 
tablishment and organization of the Republic. This frank 
demand, coming, as it did, on the heels of the failure of 
attempts at a "Restoration," produced a powerful impres- 
sion. At one time, when a majority was obtained on a 
vote of urgency, it was thought that M. Perier would 
carry his point ; but the proposition, although sustained 
by both himself and Dufaure in earnest addresses, was re- 
jected. It is pleasant for Casimir Perier to know, how- 
ever, that, despite the meager success attendant on his 
first attempt, he is considered as mainly instrumental in 
the success of the constitutional laws, and the foundation 
of the Republic, without bloodshed or relapse into anar- 
chy. 

Casimir Perier is English in feature ; he has blue eyes, 
blonde whiskers, and sedate ways. He is cool, self-reliant, 
earnest ; a man who loves truth and hates shams. He 
never stifles his political conscience by " expedients ; " he 
loves difficult situations, because he finds truth and prog- 
ress beyond them. He has published a number of vol- 
umes, on commercial and agricultural subjects, and since 
1844 has been a grand officer of the Legion of Honor. 
He is rich, and is beloved by his constituents and an im- 
mense circle of friends. Out of fifty-six thousand four 
hundred and eighty-four voters in the Aube he received 
thirty-eight thousand five hundred and forty-eight votes in 
1 871. This will serve to illustrate his popularity. His 
example in frankly accepting the Republic has been of 



CASIMIR PERIER. 315 

great profit to France. It is not unwise to predict that 
there will yet be found many other distinguished French- 
men willing to follow in his train, admitting that one 
must not 

" Attempt the future's portal with the past's blood-rusted key." 



Jules Ferry. 




|ULES FERRY was always an uncompromising 
enemy of the Empire, and has ever been a true and 
consistent friend of freedom, M. Thiers thought 
him a good enough man to send to Washington, to represent 
the new French Republic there ; but Ferry's enemies said 
No ! They did not Hke to think that he whom they had 
so earnestly endeavored to overturn, was to hold a great 
and responsible position, in which he could do much to 
further the interests of the new republican government of 
his country ; and the venerable statesman yielded to their 
prejudices. Despite these efforts to prevent his progress, 
Ferry received an appointment as ambassador to Greece, 
and satisfactorily fulfilled his duties there, with the same 
lack of affectation, and the same force which had charac- 
terized him when he was one of the leading orators of the 
irreconcilable faction in the Corps Legislatif 

M. Ferry made his debut in the law in Paris, and won 
rare honors at an early period of his career. He was born 
at Saint Die, an old monastery town in the department of 
the Vosges, in April, 1832, and his youth was uneventful, 



JULES FERRY. 317 

although filled with struggles for a livelihood and for fame. 
He was ambitious and latrorious in his profession, but he 
found time to devote himself now and then to politics, as 
the doings of the Imperial party filled him with disgust and 
horror. He was no sooner admitted to the bar than he 
joined the daring group of young lawyers who aided the 
deputies in maintaining constant opposition to the Empire ; 
and he was one of those condemned in the famous trial of 
the "thirteen." This little taste of Imperial correction 
only made him all the more anxious to keep up the battle. 
He wrote well ; he began to take an interest in journal- 
ism, and played at that dangerous game for many years. 
In 1863, he published "The Electoral Contest," in which 
he boldly and admirably exposed the shameful manner of 
electing official candidates, so persistently practiced by the 
Empire. This made him a marked man ; he was thence- 
forth dogged by spies and was otherwise the object of 
the government's solicitude. He joined the staff of the 
Te77ips, the best evening paper in Paris, in 1865, and there 
won new renown for hirfiself by contributing a series of 
articles on current politics, as well as by the terrible analy- 
sis which he bestowed upon the accounts of Prefect Hauss- 
mann, who was then occupied in rebuilding Paris, and 
consequently handled very large sums of money. These 
latter articles were published in a volume called the 
" Comptes Fantastiques d'Haussmann," and gave the Em- 
pire and its adherents new reasons for disliking M. Ferry. 
The young writer's attempt to secure his election to the 
Corps Legislatif in 1863 did not succeed. He retired be- 
fore M. Garnier-Pages. But in 1869 he was better known, 
and after a few speeches at political meetings, in which he 



3l8 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

eloquently announced his programme of fighting the 
Empire to the death, he was elected by twelve thousand 
nine hundred and sixteen votes from the Sixth Paris cir- 
conscription. One of his opponents had been a representa- 
tive of the clerical party, to which, it is hardly necessary to 
say; M. Ferry, has , always been hostile. His nomination 
had, therefore, a double character. It was anti-clerical and 
democratic. There were some faint-hearted people who 
fancied that Ferry, once comfortably seated in a deputy's 
chair, would subside into a voting member, and would 
leave the risks of a career of opposition to some one else. 
But he did not justify these suspicions. . He became one 
of the recognized chiefs of that small but resolute party 
of men who would have succeeded in overthrowing the 
Empire had it not fallen before a foreign enemy's bayonets. 
He was never the dupe of those clever people who pro- 
jected the ''reform movement," although his attacks were 
not at first violent, after the promises of Emile Ollivier ; he 
gave no confidence to the Imperial programme for the 
"crowning of the edifice," and was not long in discovering 
that a determined and vigorous policy was. the only one to 
pursue at this period. He was one of the deputies who 
demanded the dissolution of the Corps Legislatif, on the 
ground that it no longer represented the majority in the 
country. On the occasion of that demand, he engaged in 
a heated discussion with Emile Ollivier, in which he re- 
proached the latter for having dishonored his father's 
name, and for having brought discredit upon republican 
fidelity. He foresaw clearly that the war with Prussia 
would be disastrous, and voted against the fatal declara-' 
tion. 



JULES FERRY. 319 

The Fourth of September made him a member of the 
government of the National Defense. He was at once 
appointed secretar}'', and the administration of the De- 
partment of the Seine came into his hands. Paris, in its 
complete disorganization, and the war-stricken country 
round about the great city, comprised a section by no 
means easy to administer ; and it is not astonishing that 
there were many criticisms and expressions of dissatisfac- 
tion. He did the work of ten men every day, and showed 
great talent in the manner in which he entered into the 
details of the equipment of the National Guard, the crea- 
tion of ambulance corps, and many other organizations 
rendered necessary by the state of siege. He was an in- 
novator ; he made some important changes in the service 
of the department, changes which were not sustained by 
his successor. 

When the communal insurrection of October, 1870, oc- 
curred, M. Ferry was the hero of some very strange adven- 
tures. His energetic qualities were shown to great ad- 
vantage in the contest between the Communists and the 
forces loyal to the government of National Defense. Af- 
ter he discovered that parley with the insurgents would 
be of no avail, he placed himself at the head of the col- 
umn which was to charge the rioters. At ten o'clock 
on the evening of the famous 31st of October, he began to 
take active measures to subdue the revolt. The gas-lights 
in the streets were extinguished ; musket-shots were heard 
in the direction of the H&tel de Ville ; the populace was 
rapidly becoming panic-stricken, believing that the long- 
dreaded Commune had really at last arrived. Ferry, with 
his little band, picked his way through the darkness to the 



320 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 

Hotel de Ville and summoned the rioters lodged there to 
retire. His summons received no response. The gates 
of the hotel were forced, and Ferry began an attack. 
Presently Delecluze and other of the commanders in 
the movement appeared, and wished to discuss the 
situation. They offered to retire, provided their lives 
and those of their men might be spared. Desirous of 
avoiding bloodshed, M. Ferry consented to allow those of 
the rioters who were in the Hotel de Ville to leave it, and 
at once took possession. But the rioters did not leave, and 
M. Ferry was somewhat surprised when they cleverly 
turned the tables by arresting him. This movement, 
which was ridiculous, inasmuch as the Communists had 
not the force to sustain it, resulted in convincing Ferry 
that he must fight, if necessary ; and, released from tempo- 
rary custody by the National Guards who came pouring 
in to help him, he soon banished all the insurrectionists. 
He was afterwards accused of having been too lenient and 
of parleying too much with the leaders, but this charge he 
fully disproved. He was lenient merely in allowing some 
two hundred foolish people, who had been- taken prisoners 
during the disturbances, yet who had nothing whatever to 
do with the insurrection, to go free. Had it not been for 
his promptness, bravery, and energy, the Commune might 
have then succeeded in obtaining a firm foothold in Paris, 
and in maintaining it throughout the siege. 

M. Ferry was conspicuous in the succeeding months of 
trial for his good sense and his activity. He was the dele- 
gate of the Government at the central mayoralty at Paris, 
and presided over the Assembly of Mayors, who came every 
morning loaded with complaints from the twenty wards of 



JULES FERRY. 32 1 

the city, whose administration was intrusted to them. He 
found food when all others despaired of finding it ; he was 
fertile in expedients. In January, 1871, he was a second 
time called upon to resist a body of insurgents who, mad- 
dened by the defeat of the French arms in the disastrous 
sortie of the 19th of January, attacked the Hotel de Ville, 
with the intention of overthrowing the Government of Na- 
tional Defense. His coolness and bravery, and his stern 
command helped to save the situation. He exercised the 
difficult functions of Prefect of the Seine until the success 
ful outbreak of the Commune in March, 1871, and re- 
sumed them again for a few days in June, after the entry 
of the Versailles troops. 

This time, however, he remained in office only ten 
days, as he was much criticised, and was not sorry to 
yield his difficult and almost thankless functions into the 
hands of M. Leon Say. ■ His appointment to Athens gave 
him an opportunity for repose, but he improved it only 
for a short time. He was elected a deputy from the De- 
partment of the Vosges, and as politics at home grew 
interesting, he hastened back to throw himself with ardor 
into the battle. His nervous but logical oratory has fre- 
quently been of great service in the Assembly on impor- 
tant occasions. M. Ferry was for a long time the president 
of the group of deputies known as the "Union of the 
Left." He was one of the deputies who voted for the re- 
turn of the Assembly to Paris, and against the abrogation 
of the laws of exile. 



14=* 



INDEX 



A. 

Abd-el-Kader, 251. 

About, Edmond, 138, 165. 

Academie Francaise, 37, 38, 59, 74, 

113, 12S, 188, 257. 
Achard, General, 115. 
Albert (Alexandre Martin), 106. 
Angouleme, Duchesse d', 125. 
Arago, E.. 162. 
,Argence, I\I., 311. 
Aristides, 144. 
Arnaud, Antoine, 112. 
AuDiFFRET-PASQt;iER,Duc d', Memoir, 

19s ; also 170, 308. 
Augusta, Queen, 117. 
AuMALH, Due d', Memoir, 248, also 

270, 271. 

B. 

Balzac, Henri de, 24. 

Bancil, 220. 

Barbes, Armand, 18, 19, 20, 163. 

Baroche, F. J., 192. 

Barodet, M., 87. 

Barrot, Odillon, 31, 162, 164. 

Baudin, 76. 77. 

Bauville, Theodore de, 47. 

Bazaine, Marshal, 83, 117, 259. 

Berri, Due de, 17, 241. 

Berri, Duchesse de, 62, 63, 125, 241, 243, 

245. 
Berryer, A. P. 162, 213, 214, 245. 
BertoU, M., 158. 
Besancon, Cardinal Archbishop of, 124, 

125. 
Bismarck, Prince K. O., 72, 231, 232, 

233i 234. 237- 



Blanc, Louis, 47, 56, 162, 163. 

Blanqui, L. A., 18. 

Bonaparte, Joseph, 13, 40. 

Bonaparte, Napoleon (.1.), 12, 40^ 
156, 182. 

Bonaparte, Louis Napoleon (III.)i 
38, 42, 43, 46, 65, 76, 86, 106, 
116, 127, 139, 143, 164, 166, 167, 
183, 184, 192, 196, 197, 204,205, 
216, 217, 218, 219, 220, 221, 223, 
229, 234, 267. 274, 2S8, 291, 310. 

Bonaparte, Joseph Napoleon, 256. 

Bonaparte, Pierre Napoleon, 221, 
297, 29S, 301. 

Bordeaux. Duke of, 125. 

Bossuet, Rev. J. B., 112, 132, 255. 

Boulanger, 17. 

Bourbaki, C. D. E., 83. 

Bourbon, Marie C. A. de, 251. 

Bourdaloue, Louis, 132. 

Brantome (P. de Bourdeilles), 254. 

Brea, 106. 

Broglie, Due De, Memoir, 180 ; 
62, 176, 177, 183, 194, 200. 

Brown, John, 21, 46. 

Brunet, M.. 258. 

Bugeaud, Marshal, 2-,i, 

Buffet, LouiS Joseph, Memoir; 
also 93, 140, 145, 208. 

Burritt, Elihu, 149. 

c. ■ 

Carlos, Don, 37. 
Carnot, L. H., 105. 
Carrell, Arniand, 16, 60. 
Cassaignac, Paul de, 96, 279, 288, 31 
Castelar, E. de, 147. 



296, 



also 



324 



INDEX. 



Cavaignac, General, 63, 143, 163, 204, 

205, 252. 
Challemet-Lacour, M., 135, 136, 200. 
Chamboud, Comte de, Memoir, 239 ; 

also 125, 130, 131, 197. 
Champfleury (Jules Fleury), 47. 
Changarnier, Gen., 38, 119, 154. 
Chaniiing, Rev. W. E., 147, 157. 
Charlemagne, 37. 
Charles X., 25, 60, 119, 239, 240, 243, 

245. _ 

Chateaubriand, F. A. de, 14, 15, 63, 

242. 244, 245. 
Chevalier, Michel, 167. . 
Christ, 20, 2T, 123. 
Cluseret, G. P., 302. 
Commerson, M., 285. 
Commune, The, 51, 72, 86, 118, 175, 238, 

246, 304,305, 319, 321. 
Corate, Auguste, 128. 
Conde, Prince de, 254. 

Conde, Prince de (present), 256, 260. 

Constant, Benjamin, 27. 

'■ Constitutionnel," The, 60. 

Corneille, P. de,254. 

'' Correspondant," The, 183. 

Cosette, 46. 

" Courrier de France," 186. 

Cousin, Victor, 102, 103, 104, 162. 

Cromwell, Oliver, 22. 

D. 

Damas, Due de, 242, 243. 

Delacroix, E., 24. 

Delescluze, L. C, 320. 

Desaix, L. C. A^, 39. 

Descartes, Rene, 112. 

Deschamps, E., 17. 

Dorvai, Madame, 30, 31. 

Ducrot, Gen., 117, 276. 

DuFAURE, Jules A. S., Memoir, 202 ; 

also 142. 
Dumas, Alexandre, 24. 
DuPANLOUP, MoNSEiGNEUR, Memoir, 

122 ; also no, 247. 
Duval, Edgak Raoul, Memoir, 172. 

E. 

" Emancipation," The, 78. 

Emanuel, Victor-. 265. 

Empire, French (First), 10, 124. 

Empire, French (Second), 29, 43, 44, 
50, 51, 63, 65, 66, 75, 77, 78, 80, 84, 
97, 107, loS, 123, 124, 127, 152, 160, 
166, 167, 169, 173, 178, 184, 191, 196, 
197, 198, 199, 204, 205, 206, 216, 217, 
218, 2ig, 220, 222, 22S, 230, 273, 274, 
275, 288, 289, 290, 300, 301, 3^2, 310, 
317. 318. 



Esmeralda, 35. 

Eugenie, Empress, 218, 222, 290. 

" Evenement," The, 20, 42. 



Famine, 46. 

Favre, Jiles, Memoir, 224; also 72, 

81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 89, 108, 221, 222, 

277, 292, 302. 
Fenelon, F. de, 132. 
Ferry, Jule.s. Memoir, 316. 
" Figaro," 279, 287, 288, 289. 
Fitzjames, Due de, 245. 
Fleury, Cuvilier, 250. 
Flourens, Gustave, 300, 302. 
Foucher, Mademoiselle, 15. 
Fould, Achille, 38. 
" Fra Diavolo " (Michel Pozza), 11. 
Fragonard, J. H., 254. 
Francis, I., 30, 37, 254. 
Franklin, Benj., 149. 



Gambetta, Leon, Memoir, 75 ; also, 

56, 131, 138, 144, 166, 17s, 178, 194, 

199, 200, 220, 221, 231. 
Garibaldi, G., 45, 51. 
Garnier-Pages, M., 317. 
Garrison, W. L., 149. 
" Gaulois," The, 286. 
Gavroche, 46. 
Gilliatt, 47, _ 
Girardin, Saint-Marc, 38. 
Grammont, Due de, 145. 
Gregory XVI., Pope, 127, 129. 
Grew, Jule.s, Memoir, 140 also, 56, 

87, 193. 
Grousset, Paschal, 296, 297. 
Guerry, Madamede, 213. 
Guidal, General, 13. 
Guis?, Due de, 260, 
Guizot, F., 31, 96, 162, 188, 203, 252, 

257- 

H. 

Haussmann, Baron, 213, 274. 

Henri IV., 242, 247. 

Henri V., 242, 243, 247. 

Hoffman, Prof., 264. 

Houdetot. M. de, 19. 

HughfS, Thomas, 268. 

Hugo, Charles, 291. 

Hugo, Eugene, 13. 

Hugo, Francois, 291. 

Hugo, Madame, 13. 

Hugo. Victor Marie, Memoir, 9 

also, 165, 290, 305. 
Hyacinthe, Pere (M. Loyson), 122. 



INDEX. 



325 



Isabella, Queen, 287. 
Isabella, Princess, 270. 



James II., 114. 

Jesse, Madame de, 234. 

Joinville, Prince de, 252, 270. 

Joinville, Princesse de, 252, 257. 

Joiirdan, J. B., 39. 

"Journal de Paris," 260. 

" Journal des Debats," 158, 258. 

Julian, Emperor, 189. 

K. 

Keller, M., 56. 
Kilmorey, Lord, 253. ' 



Laboulaye, Edouard, Memoir, 147 • 

also, 135. 
Lacordaire, J. B. H., 188, 282. 
Lagrange, M., 38, 41. 
Lahorie, V. F. de, 11, 12, 13. 
Laraartine, A. de, 64, 151, 152, 162, 

242. 
Lambrecht, M., 311. 
Lamennais, H. F. R., 16. 
"Lanterne," The, 289, 290, 292, 294, 

295. 304-. 3°^: 
La Rochejaquelein, Madame de, 39. 
Le Boeuf, Marshal, 66. 
Lefranc, M., 277. 
Lemaitre, Frederick, 32. 
Leopold, Prince, 251. 
Levy, Michel, 257. 
Lincoln, Abraham, 149. 
Linville, M., 273. 
L'Isle, Rouget de, 302. 
Liszt, Abbe, 223. 
Littre, M. P. E., 128, 129, 138. 
Louis, Baron, 60. 
Louis XI., 35. 
Louis XIIi:, 25. 
Louis XVIII., 13,17. 
Louis Philippe. 19, 20, 30, 38, 63, 1315, 
. 162, 182, 228, 250, 251, i52, 253, 262, 

269. 
Loyson, M. (Pere Hyacinthe), 122. 

M. 
MacMahon, Marshal, Memoir, 114; 

also, 68, III, 154, 193, 208. 
Magenta, Duchesse de, 116, 121. 
Malebranche, Nicolas, 112. 
Malet, General, 13. 
IVlann, Horace, 149, 150. 
Marie Amelie, Queen, ^50, 253. 



Marius, 46. 

Mars, Mademoiselle, 25, 26, 28, 29, 31. 

" ]\I.'irseillaise," The, 279, 295, 296, 297. 

302. 
MartignacM. de,25. 
Massillon, J. B., 132. 
Maudley, 268. 
Maurice, Paul. 291. 
Mazarin, Cardinal, 183. 
McClellan, Gen. G. B., 265, 266. 
Merimee, Prosper, 21, 27. 
INIerruan, Charles, 285. 
Mery, Louis, 211. 
Modena, Due de, 245. 
Moltke, Baron von, 232. 
Montaigne, Michel de, 254. 
Montalembert, C. F., 39, 257. 
Montpayeroux, Guyot, 92. 
Montpensier, Due de, 270. 
Montpensier, Isabelle de, 270. 
Moreau, Gen. J. V., 11, 12. 
Morny, Due de, 163, 215, 217, 218. 
" Mot d'Ordre, The," 304, 305. 
" Movement," The, 226. 
Murray, Grenville, 119, 88, 137. 
Musset, A. de, 24. 

N. 
Napoleon, See Bonaparte. 
" National," The, 60, 226. 
Naquet, A. J., 200. 
Nemours, Due de, 115, 264. 
Niel, Marshal, 115. 
Noir, Victor, 221, 296, 297, 298, 229,300. 

O. 

Ollivier, DemosthSnes, 210. 

Ollivier, Emile, Memoir, 210; also, 

80, 117, 165, 168, 184, 193, 318. 
Orleans, Due d', 243, 244, 272. 
Orleans, Marie d', 19. 
Orsini, Felice, 116, 228. 



Palikao, Count, 222. 

Palissy, Bernard, 255. 

Palmerston, Lord, 21, 65. 

Paris, Archbishop of, 138. 

Paris, Comte De, Memoir, 261 ; also, 

256. 
Pasquier, Baron, 19S. 
Pastoret, M. de, 245. 
Pelissier, Marshal, 115. 
Pelletan, Camille, 8g. 
Pelletan, Louts, 47. 
Perirr, Casi.mir, Memoir, 308 ; also, 

62, 188, 192, ig6. 
Picard, Ernest, Memoir, 273 also. 89. 
Pietri, 89. 



326 



INDEX. 



Plebiscite, 50, 65, 79, 80, 150, 152, 176, 

193, 221, 275. 
Plon Plon, Prince (Joseph Napoleon 

Bonaparte), 256. 
Proudhon, P. J., 38, 230. 

Q. 

Quasimodo, 33. 

Qiielen, Archbishop, 126. 

Quenisset, 251. 

R. 

Rabelais, Francois, 254. 

Racine, Jean, 254. 

Ranc, 175. 

" Rappel," The, 291. 

Raspail, F. V., 163, 295. 

Remiisat, Charles de, 87, 263. 

Remusat, Comte de, 119. 

Renan, Ernest, 126. 

Republic, French (First), 11, 13, 156. 

Republic, French (Second), 40, 41, 127, 

142, 143, 162,163, '641 i^7i 1^3, 191, 

204, 213. 
Republic, French (Third), 57, 67, 68, 

69, 71, 85, 97, 109, 127, 129, 137, 

I44i I5i, I54i 15s, 176, 180, 181, 185, 

187, 188, 200, 206, 208, 229, 248, 271, 

.304, 3°9i 3"' 3.12, 313. 314- 
Resistance, Committee of, 42, 43. 
"Revue des Deux Mondes," 183, 256, 

267, 310. 
Riviere, Montmorency de, 242. 
Robespierre, F. J., 283. 
RoCHEFORT, Henri, Memoir, 279 ; also, 

52, 56, 60, 80, 147, 152. 
Rohan, Prince de, 124. 
RoUin, Ledru. 142, 151, 210, 227. 
RouHEK, Eugene, Memoir, 160: also, 

89, 92, 93, 192, 196, 198, 199, 216, 

217, 218, 219, 220, 223. 

S. 

Sainte-Beuve, C. A., 17, 24, 26. 

Savigny, F. C. de, 157. 

Say, Leon, 321. 

Saxe-Weimar, Grand Duke of, 264. 

Scholl, Amelien, 287. 

Septennate, The, 119, 120, 155, 187. 

Seward, W. H., 265. 



Shakespeare, William, 23, 36. 

" Siecle," The, 282. 

Simon Jules, Memoir, 98 ; also, 132, 

138, 161, 267, 277. 
" Soleil," The, 282. 
Soulie, F., 24. 
Stael, Madame de, 181. 
Strauss, D. F., 128. 

T. 

Talleyrand, C. M. de, 102, 137 

Talma, F. J., 22. 

Taylor, M., 22, 24, 25. 

" Temps," The, 317. 

Tessevre, Abbe, T24. 

Theodore the Great, 189. 

" The Pope and the Congress," 138. 

"The Situation," 169. 

Thiers, Louis Auolphe, Memoir, 55 ; 
also, 27, 80, 82, no, 118, 119, 131, 132, 
137, 138, 175, 176, 177, 181, 182, 
184, 185, 186, 191, 193, 196, 199, 200, 
203, 206, 207, 208, 211, 217, 218, 237, 
238, 257, 258, 259, 275, 276, 305, 308, 
311, 313, 316. 

Tissot, S. A., 128. 

Trochu, Gen., 303. 

Troppmann, 299. 

V. 

Vacquerie, Auguste, 38, 291. 
Vacquerie, Charles, 38. 
Valjean, 4^^. 
Valmy, Due de, 245. 
Vauvenaraues, L., 59. 
Verger, 138. 
Veron, Pierre, 286. 
Veuillot, Louis, 124, 128, 138. 
Vigny, A. de, 24. 
Villemessant, 289. 
Vinoy, Gen., 235. 
Voltaire, F. M. A. de, 126. 

W. 
Walewski, F. A., 219. 
William I., King (of Prussia), 116, 120. 



Yriarte, 254. 



